Pressing On: A Podcast Series
"Pressing On" is a podcast series exploring the intersection of trauma, journalism, and coping. I am the lead reporter, editor, and fact-checker for this series.
Julie Ciotola
Writer and editor who enjoys long-form writing, podcasts and social media. Interested in just about anything. Have covered politics, religion and local heroes.
Work from internships is archived in the tabs at the top of the page. The stories and projects featured below are more recent and some of my favorites.
Serenity Grove Provides a Healing Space for Women with Addiction
It’s a late-summer evening at Central Venue in Athens. Soft jazz music plays as city residents stream into the space for a fundraiser. At the front of the venue is a large screen with a phrase projected for everyone to read: “People grow when they are loved well. If you want to help others heal, love them without an agenda.”
Washington, D.C.-area alumni lend expertise to education public policy leadership program
In December, the first cohort of Ohio University’s Education Public Policy Leadership Certificate (EPPLC) gathered in Washington, D.C., for the program’s pinnacle moment – a three-day residency that allowed them to connect with legislators, one another and policymakers, including several OHIO alumni who are making their mark in the field.
John C. Baker Fund awards more than $46K to four faculty proposals
Four Ohio University faculty members were awarded a total of $46,177 from the John C. Baker Fund during fall semester 2019 for their research and scholarly work.
The John C. Baker Fund, which provides up to $12,000 for each proposal, supports faculty projects that are near completion. The fund was endowed in 1961 by a gift from Edwin L. Kennedy, AB ’26, HON ’65, and Ruth Kennedy, BSED ’30, and is named in honor of Ohio University’s 14th president.
Driven (podcast)
As summer 2019 rounded to a close, Ohio University hosted the first-ever It’s On Us National Student Leadership Summit, bringing hundreds of students from across the country together to discuss the pressing issue of sexual assault on college campuses.
RaeAnn Ensworth, a senior at OHIO, attended the conference with the intention of applying what she learned to her leadership role on campus.
Alumna’s training, compassion filling vital need in Haitian schools
It’s 7 a.m., the sun is lifting over the Haitian coast, and audiologist Vanessa Lee, MAHSS ’95, is en route to a local school where she will perform hearing screenings on students around the clock until dinnertime.
For most of these students, this is likely their first hearing test.
“Here in the States, children will get their hearing screened just as a part of their schooling,” said Lee. “They’ll get screened multiple times during their school years."
Kittle family, fellow Bobcats turn tragedy into opportunity to help others
“She’s developed a pretty interesting legacy for a little girl who only lived 58 minutes.”
That’s how Matt Kittle, BBA ’04, MBA ’08, MSA ’09, and his wife, Elena, talk about their daughter, Evie, whose short life has touched the lives of many – all because her parents and her father’s Ohio University classmates decided to turn moments of sorrow into opportunities to give to others.
Kindred Market offers organic selections in Athens
For years, Riley Kinnard has envisioned the possibility of an organic grocery store in Athens that would connect the community through a shared goal of wellness. On May 26, her vision finally came true as the lights lit up in Kindred Market, a new grocer on East State Street.
Seniors take over fairgrounds for Safety Day
Those at the Athens County Fairgrounds on Thursday afternoon found themselves eager to explore — between live cooking demonstrations, musical entertainment and helicopter tours, the area was buzzing with activity
Alumni couple bringing historic bike race back to Athens
Daniel Brown, BS ’02, MS ’07, distinctly remembers the Athens Brick Criterium bike race in 1989 when he stationed himself on a street corner and watched as professional cyclists zoomed past. Among the riders that year were some of Brown’s idols: professional cyclist Lance Armstrong, Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and John Lefelhocz, co-owner of Athens’ own Cycle Path Bicycle Shop.
Daniel, who was 10 years old at the time, had already developed a love for cycling.
Irwin reflects on tenure as Russ College dean, Moss Professor
On July 14, Dennis Irwin will pass the torch on what he describes as the honor of his life, retiring as dean of Ohio University’s Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology.
In stepping down from this treasured position he has held since 2002, Irwin is also leaving his role as the college’s Cruse W. Moss Professor of Engineering Education.
Short-term overdoses lead to long-term health effects
ATHENS, OHIO—Cabell County, West Virginia, Paramedic Brenda Johnson distinctly remembers responding to her first opioid overdose.
“This man had swallowed several fentanyl patches that go on your arm,” Johnson said. “I had never heard of that. I thought to myself, ‘These people must be really desperate to swallow fentanyl patches.’”
In the minutes following an overdose, the body’s respiratory control center stops sending the signals that drive breathing. As a result, heart rate slows, oxygen le
Alumnus’ Bobcat spirit lives on through scholarship, annual TyAthlon
After graduating from Ohio University, Tyler Weymouth, BSS ’11, swiftly entered the workforce, equipped with the film and video skills he had acquired inside the classroom and through years of experience working as a film projectionist at the Athena Cinema. Weymouth landed a job as a technical operations specialist at the Newseum where he quickly […]
A place to gather
Francine Childs, HON ’97, EMERT ’05, is many things to many people.
Ohio University’s first tenured black professor, she’s a stalwart social justice advocate. On campus and in the community, she’s a symbol of perseverance, selflessness, and spunk. To her students, she’s simply “Doc,” or more affectionately, “Mama Childs.”
“The one person who directly had the greatest influence in me being a scholar, in me being a successful businessman, it directly correlates to Dr. Francine Childs,"
Clara Ester to reflect on being witness to Martin Luther King Jr. assassination
It’s been 50 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and Clara Ester still describes the experience as “almost unspeakable.”
Ester, now a retired deaconess of the United Methodist Church, was a college student and activist for the sanitation workers strike in 1968. She was outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King was fatally shot.
“I witnessed him being lifted up and thrown back,” she said. “I cannot figure out how I managed to do it, but I took off and ran up a flight
Video Clip: Leipzig Group Profile
This was a video I produced for a study abroad trip to Leipzig, Germany. The video highlights one student group that was working on a project about the opioid crisis and the court system. The group was a collaboration between Ohio University students and Universität Leipzig students. The project identified problems in the United States court system in regard to drug addicts, and proposed a solution to the crisis.
