PBMF Awards

Pitt’s Office of Public Affairs won seven Robert L. Vann Journalism Awards at the 25th annual Pittsburgh Black Media Federation Awards ceremony May 8. The awards were presented for 2007 media coverage of African American life, culture, and accomplishments in Western Pennsylvania.

Honorees and their awards were: Robert Hill, vice chancellor for public affairs, second place in Column Writing for “No Asterisks” in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pitt Chronicle, first place in News Features for “John Woodruff Dies at 92” by Bruce Steele, first place in Series for the 2007 Black History Month Series (for articles written by Morgan Kelly, Patricia Lomando White, Hassan Wilcox, and Steele), and a second place in series for “Pitt, Carnegie Mellon Honor Tutu” by John Harvith and Jason Togyer; Pitt Magazine, first place in Public Affairs for Jennifer Bails’ story “Sanctuary” and first place in Business Feature (Magazine) for Elaine Vitone’s “Smart Drive”; and Pitt Med magazine, Honorable Mention in Feature Photos for “A Most Unwelcome Visitor” by Cami Mesa.

Among those attending the awards were (from left) Cara Hayden, Pitt Magazine senior editor; Bails; Vitone; Holden Slattery, Pitt Magazine intern; Cindy Gill, Pitt Magazine editor-in-chief; Ervin Dyer, Pitt Magazine senior editor and coordinator of the PBMF Awards and ceremony; White; and Harvith. Dyer also received two awards for articles he wrote for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, first place in Series for “Invisible Men” and second place in Feature Story for “The Bus Stops Here.”