Notable News

Congrats to 2021 Gaylord College Outstanding Seniors! Pictured left to right are Emmy Wildermuth, Outstanding Senior - Professional Writing; Kelly Rose, Outstanding Senior - Advertising; Parker Thune, Outstanding Senior - Journalism; Curt Watson, Outstanding Senior - Creative Media Production; and Lauren Szmutko, Outstanding Senior - Public Relations.

It's been a big year for Oklahoma film critic Dino Lalli. Fresh off his induction into the Oklahoma Movie Hall of Fame on May 29 in Muskogee, the 1978 University of Oklahoma radio and TV broadcasting graduate has been named a distinguished alum by the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"I'm lucky because one of my favorite hobbies is also something I do as a professional, which is watching movies," Lalli said.

Lalli's career has taken him across the country, including a stint at KNBC in Los Angeles. However, most of his work has been in Oklahoma. After graduation, Lalli worked at KOCO and then KTVY, the predecessor to KFOR, before moving to California and returning to KOCO in Oklahoma City. For the past decade, Lalli has been self-employed with his production company, Clever Name Productions. Through that company, he is contracted to produce, co-host and do feature reports for Discover Oklahoma.

He also produces entertainment features and film reviews for News 9 in Oklahoma City and News On 6 in Tulsa. Dino is an adjunct professor at Gaylord who teaches electronic media writing, and that provides him his greatest professional pleasure.

"I get so much in return from my students, and being able to help them as best I know how gives me great satisfaction and is incredibly rewarding," he said.

Lali and three other distinguished journalists from the college will be honored at a ceremony in November. The other alumni to be honored are Lynn Seely, Brandon Oldham and Karen Wicker.

Videography opened the door to opportunity and advancement for this University of Oklahoma alum, and that door is not closing anytime soon.

Tony McCoy is the building resource technology coordinator at Gaylord College, but really he’s the Swiss Army tool of the university’s school of journalism.

McCoy is a cage manager in the equipment checkout area of Gaylord. He is also in charge of classroom scheduling, event management and starting this fall, he will be an adjunct instructor for OU.

This Sooner is born and bred - McCoy grew up in Norman and attended Oklahoma Christian Community College alongside OU to study film and video production journalism. He decided to take an alternative route and halted attending school for the time being.

For the next 10 years, he worked in video production, and for eight of those years he was also working as a first responder.

“In both of those jobs, you get to go places and see things most people don’t get to experience.”

From post-game victories in the OU football and basketball locker rooms, delivering babies, resuscitating stopped hearts to interviewing former mobsters – the combination of jobs has given him many unique perspectives in life.

“[That mobster] made a joke when I wired up his microphone that he knows people who were killed for wearing a wire.” – yikes.

With the thrills and chills of working as a paramedic came the 24-hour shifts and the stresses of work-life balance. McCoy, a new father at the time, says he was missing moments that he felt were milestones in his son’s life.

“My mother has always put her family first,” McCoy said. “As I get older, some of the things I thought were important when I was younger are really not that meaningful. I am thankful that my mother instilled in me to make time for my family.”

After re-centering his goals and priorities, McCoy decided to focus primarily on journalism work and retired his first responder gear. He began working for OU’s SoonerVision in video production.

“I like problem-solving and being challenged, and processes can always be improved,” he explained. “I love it when I hear a process in place because ‘it's always been done that way’ usually means that it can be refined, updated or changed. I like to look at problems as opportunities.”

Then he decided to revisit a door that had always stayed open. “It always bugged me that I never finished my bachelor’s degree.”

McCoy decided to return to school and earned a degree in BA Leadership from OU in 2018. He started taking graduate classes last year. He says he is most drawn to the styles of leadership that have a strong foundation in ethics.

“I lean on the lessons from stoicism,” McCoy shared. “One of the major pillars in that school of thought is identifying things within your control and things that are not and only putting energy into the things you can control.”

What advice would he give students on the brink of looking for a career for the first time?

“Put as much work into yourself as you do your career,” McCoy encouraged. “Develop your own set of ethics and personal philosophy and find out what truly is important to you. The stronger you develop your sense of self, the easier decision-making becomes.”

The guy who has reported on the floors of both NBA game day courts and top security prisons says what’s rewarding to him now is being around the students at OU.

“They continually impress me with how hard they work and how creative they are. They motivate me to not fall into a rut and to challenge myself and try new things. Working with students, I am reminded of how excited I used to be about everything.”

Stop by and say hi to the new professor at Gaylord – he will be teaching JMC 2643 Sound Light and Motion and JMC 3011 GameDayU beginning this fall.