About Us
“Knight Writer” is now the product of three minds (and three sets of hands) specifically, those of Jason Hughes, Debbie Stern and the newest addition, Laura Vann, in the Office of Marketing and Communication at Lynn University.
Jason is relatively new to South Florida, having relocated here in August of 2006 for the express purpose of joining the Lynn University family. His greatest and possibly, only gift is an unquenchable curiosity. This has him pouring over the local newspapers at his desk, zig-zagging through his favorite online blogs, butting into conversations in the cafeteria, flagging down passers-by around campus and generally asking whatever questions he has whenever they pop into his mind.
When not raising his own questions, Jason’s running down answers and story ideas for local, regional and national journalists. The university community also knows him as the guy updating them on schedule changes, power outages and the occasional weather phenomenon via broadcast messages.
What else to say? He’s a huge college basketball fan, Lynn MBA student, bad fly fisherman, burgeoning handy man and daddy-o to a little boy (Elias).
If Jason is the yin, then Debbie is the yang.
Debbie is not new to South Florida, having moved to Boca Raton in 1985 when living out west was like living in the Wild West. She joined Lynn University’s marketing team as a writer/editor in the summer of 2005. She’s older than Jason by a few decades (he has a toddler, she has a Gen-Xer).
Like Jason, she’s an information “junkie,” always keeping her eyes and ears open to make sure she’s keeping up with campus life. And while Jason toots Lynn’s horn mainly to the outside world, Debbie concentrates on getting the word out to Lynn’s inside community and is best known around campus as the “voice” of myLynn.
Debbie is originally from New Jersey and graduated from Ithaca College many moons ago (in the turbulent hippie era). You’ll probably find her saying, “back in the day” all too often, but hey, it’s a different perspective. So, having given fair warning, she loves the Beatles and all the oldies from “back in the day” (see, I told you!). On the bright side, she has 25+ years of experience (with age comes wisdom?) with diverse positions in the communications field including public relations manager, marketing director, feature writer and newspaper editor. (When she first started they used typewriters – you know that contraption with the keys and the ding at the end!) She also loves sailing, nature, fun times and good conversation.
So if Jason’s the yin and Debbie’s the yang, what is Laura? She’s the newbie (kind-of).
Laura is a 2008 Lynn alum, a well traveled blogger (see “My Life in Madrid”) and a current full time staffer alongside Jason and Debbie. So, although new to the marketing department, Laura has been at Lynn for almost 5 years. She’s an Augusta, Ga. native and 23-years-old, making her a Gen-Yer like most Lynn students.
What else? Laura majored in journalism and mass communication, specialized in PR and advertising and minored in marketing (a serious mouth full). She claims to do a little bit of everything when it comes to marketing at Lynn. However, most of her days are spent on Facebook and YouTube – a pretty sweet job by most 23-year-old’s standards. When she isn’t surfing the web, Laura is news gathering and writing Lynn stories. Yes, she’s the one who is always on deadline. The one who has a knack for wanting too much information and needing it too quickly. Laura can also be found on campus – either in the caf for lunch, in grad classes at night, or just walking around with the media anytime of the day. Stay tuned for the new Knight Writer series: “Lunch with Laura.”