Meet Our Alumni Panel
It Started at the State Press:
How the Student Newsroom Experience Shapes Careers
When: Friday, Nov. 6 at 3:30 p.m.
Where: First Amendment Forum, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
555 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85004
Catered Reception to Follow
Hear from these amazing alums.
Bloomberg NewsAlicia A. Caldwell
Alicia A. Caldwell was a State Press staffer for three semesters from 1998 to 2000. She covered the police beat before becoming city editor and later editor-in-chief in the spring of 2000. She earned a master's degree in mass communication-print journalism from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2000. (She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona and remains a vocal Wildcat fan, but we won't hold that against her!)
Since her time at The State Press, Caldwell has been a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Orlando Sentinel, The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal. She joined Bloomberg News in Los Angeles in January 2025 and has spent the majority of her career covering immigration and border issues.
Sam Stewart
Sam Stewart is a principal of responsible AI strategy at Google, where he orchestrates the company’s cross-product strategy for content provenance, including safeguards such as SynthID watermarks and C2PA manifests to advance transparency and trust in digital media. His previous work at Google spans public policy roles focused on countering disinformation and supporting the Global Elections Integrity team.
Before his work in technology, Sam served in the U.S. Department of State in several roles, including pioneering intelligence sharing between the U.S. government and major tech platforms to combat foreign malign state influence. A former Stanford University John S. Knight Journalism Fellow and Knight Foundation Grant recipient, Sam also has held senior managing and editing roles at AOL News, Agence France-Presse and The Arizona Republic (following his start as a photographer and photo editor for The State Press in the late 1990s).
He holds an MBA from Central European University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In his career, he’s had the opportunity to travel to over 80 countries on six continents but most enjoys spending time at home with his wife and daughter in Tiburon, California
The Washington Post
Lynh Bui
Lynh Bui started at The State Press as an opinion columnist in 2002 before moving to the city desk as a reporter and later serving as editor of State Press Magazine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a master’s degree in journalism from American University.
Following her time at ASU and The State Press, Lynh went on to work at The Arizona Republic and then, in 2012, joined The Washington Post as an American University fellow. She stayed beyond the fellowship, spending six years covering police and the courts and eventually became an editor on The Post Metro desk.
As a Metro editor, she helped direct coverage of some of the most urgent topics covered by the newspaper, including the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and the more than 1,000 prosecutions that followed. In 2024, she moved to The Post's health and science desk, and she currently serves as editor of health, climate and science coverage. In 2026, the Post health team received multiple Edward R. Murrow awards for its coverage of vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. and cancer among young people.
Mike Curran
Treyarch
Mike Curran worked at The State Press as a photographer and cartoonist on and off from 1998 to 2002. Although he was pursuing a bachelor of fine arts, he spent much of his time at Arizona State University involved in student media. From 1999 to 2002, he also worked as a freelance photographer for Get Out, the Tribune’s weekly entertainment guide.
After graduating in 2002, Mike left his hometown of Tempe for Los Angeles to pursue a career as a video game artist. He is now a senior character artist at Treyarch, working on the Call of Duty: Black Ops series. Over the past 19 years, he has helped ship eight Call of Duty titles.
Panel Moderator
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Joshua Deahl
Judge Joshua Deahl worked at The State Press from 2000-2003 — first as an opinion columnist, then as the opinion editor. He earned a B.S. in political science and a B.A. in philosophy from Arizona State University, and later received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
After law school, Josh began his legal career clerking for Judge Fortunato Benavides on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and then clerking for Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court of the United States.
He practiced law for more than a decade after that, working both as a public defender in the District of Columbia and in the Supreme Court practice of a national law firm, until he was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to a judgeship on the D.C. Court of Appeals. He has served as a judge on that court since 2019.
He also teaches law school courses on the use of AI in judicial decision-making, most recently at the University of Chicago Law School in 2026.