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Houston Chronicle's Maria Douglas Reeve '92, Student Alana Caesar To Speak At Commencement

COLLEGE PARK (5/6/20) — Alumna Maria Douglas Reeve, the Houston Chronicle’s Managing Editor/Content, and graduating senior Vivian Alana Caesar will be the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s Spring 2020 commencement speakers.

Reeve earned her master’s degree in journalism at UMD in 1992 before building a career as a newsroom leader at the Chronicle, Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Caesar is a senior graduating with dual degrees in broadcast journalism and government and politics. She was chosen as the student speaker by a vote of the graduating seniors.

Merrill College’s virtual commencement will be held May 22 at commencement.umd.edu after the completion of the 1 p.m. campus-wide virtual ceremony.

Reeve joined the Chronicle as one of its two managing editors in November 2019. She previously served as Assistant Managing Editor/News at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Reeve had been at the Star Tribune for eight years, leading the Features team and working as Deputy Metro Editor before becoming AME/News.

Before joining the Star Tribune, Reeve worked in several positions at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, including recruiter, state capitol reporter and Politics Editor.

Reeve is also an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists, is a past president of the Twin Cities Black Journalists and is a former regional director of the Society of Professional Journalists. This year, Reeve was a Nominating Juror in the Pulitzer Prizes’ Breaking News category for work completed in 2019.

When she’s not working, she’s running. She has completed 10 marathons, including Twin Cities, New York, Chicago and Marine Corps. Reeve and her husband Tad, the sports editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, have three children.

Caesar has served as Vice President of UMD’s Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law fraternity chapter and as the Student Government Association Vice President of Academic Affairs. She has also been a UMD College of Behavioral and Social Sciences research assistant, a Merrill College tour guide, and a teaching assistant at both Merrill College and BSOS.

Caesar was the 2019-20 recipient of the J. Theodore Crown, Sr. and Joseph T. Crown, Jr. Scholarship awarded through Merrill College.

Outside the university, she has interned for U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner, WTKR News 3, CBS This Morning, CNN’s Political Unit, the Elizabeth Warren 2020 presidential campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union.

After graduation, Caesar will be working in political communications in Washington before attending law school in the fall of 2021.

For more information, contact:
Josh Land
joshland@umd.edu
301-405-1321

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