University of Tulsa alumna Alex Isaak (BA ’19) won two Heartland Emmy awards earlier this month for work she did at KOTV-NewsOn6 in June 2022. She credits much of her readiness to lead production of live newscasts to the lessons she learned in the classroom and experience she gained at the student-run TUTV multimedia lab.
“TU’s media studies curriculum had a good mix of theoretical and practical coursework. I remember Dr. (Justin) Rawlins’ media production and criticism class, which gave me the opportunity to envision, write, storyboard, record, and edit original projects,” Isaak said. “I also served as director of TUTV on-and-off for about two years and produced/directed the organization’s first livestream for the 2018 midterm elections.”
Isaak’s Emmys recognize the work she did for her production of KOTV-NewsOn6’s evening coverage of the Saint Francis Hospital mass shooting in June 2022. Formerly a producer for the Tulsa television station, Isaak’s team received awards for both Evening Newscast Market 46-99 and Team Coverage of the shooting, which broke during the 5 p.m. newscast.
“I really want to emphasize that this was a team effort. I was fortunate to work with industry professionals – anchors, reporters, photographers, assignment desk editors, video editors – who handled the crisis professionally and expertly,” she said. “That made leading the team easy.”
Having spent four years as producer at KOTV-NewsOn6, Isaak has returned to The University of Tulsa to serve as program coordinator for TU’s Oklahoma Center for the Humanities. The center serves an important role on campus and in the community through sponsorship of lectures, symposia, exhibitions, panel discussions, concerts and other events that focus on the topics that make us human.