5 alumni honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards
The Media School’s Alumni Board is honoring five fellow alumni who have excelled across media fields as recipients of its 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards.
The school will celebrate their contributions to the news and media industries at a celebration Nov. 7 in Franklin Hall.
The recipients are:
Lee Ann Daly, BA’85
Over her versatile career, Lee Ann Daly, BA’85, has made significant contributions to the fields of media, marketing, and innovation. As a C-suite executive at ESPN, Thomson Reuters, several startups, and PE-backed companies, Daly helped transform the way global audiences engage with storytelling and technology with numerous platform extensions – including specialized channels, digital ESPN, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Films, consumer products, ESPN Zone locations, and interactive games. She also green-lit iconic ad campaigns such as “This Is SportsCenter” and the Cannes Lions Gold Award–winning “Without Sports…” campaigns. Beyond corporate leadership, she has been recognized for her industry influence, including being named a Top Female Sports Business Executive by Sports Business Journal.
Jerald B. Harkness, BA’91 (sociology), Cert’91
Jerald B. Harkness, BA’91 (sociology), Cert’91, is the president and CEO of Studio Auteur, LLC, a content creation company specializing in producing broadcast documentaries. Harkness’ prolific career spans over 30 years where he has produced and directed for Paramount TV, UMC, ESPN, VH1, A&E, PBS, CBS Sports Network, and Tubi. Notable awards include a national Emmy, Best Documentary for the International Academy of Web TV, the inaugural Spotlight Award from the Indianapolis Black Documentary Filmmaker Festival, and numerous festival awards that include three Heartland Film Festival Selections, two Pan African Film Festival selections, and Indy Film Festival. Harnkess has also been acknowledged by President Barack Obama for his works that celebrate forgotten and overlooked African American trailblazers and pioneers. He donated The Jerald Harkness Collection, which features raw footage and master tapes from many of his projects, to the Black Film Center & Archive at IU in 2023.
Mel Raines, BA’91
Mel Raines, BA’91, has more than 30 years of corporate, operations, legislative, political, and public affairs experience. She is currently in her eleventh year with Pacers Sports & Entertainment serving as the first female CEO in the organization’s history. In her role, she oversees business operations for the Indiana Pacers of the NBA, Indiana Fever of the WNBA, Indiana Boom of the G League, and Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Raines was named one of USA TODAY’S Women of the Year in 2025 and is currently leading a $78 million, 108,000-square-foot Indiana Fever sports performance center in downtown Indianapolis featuring state-of-the-art training, recovery, childcare, and mental health and wellness facilities, set to open ahead of the 2027 WNBA season.
Catt Sadler, BAJ’97
Catt Sadler, BAJ’97, is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist with almost 30 years of on-air experience. She is best known for her work on E! Entertainment, where she covered Hollywood’s biggest red-carpet events interviewing A-list celebrities throughout awards season and co-hosting the Vanity Fair Oscars Party show for several consecutive years. Sadler has also appeared on numerous programs, including “The View,” “The Talk,” and “The Tamron Hall Show.” After choosing to leave E! over a wage gap issue and receiving an outpouring of support, she became a prominent voice in the equal pay movement. Since then, she has championed women’s rights through her participation in various female empowerment movements across the nation. Today, she is the host and executive producer of her weekly podcast, “Catt Sadler Now,” with more than 300 episodes recorded to date.
Lars Willnat, MA’91, PhD’92
Lars Willnat, MA’91, PhD’92, is the John Ben Snow Endowed Research Professor in the Newhouse School Syracuse University, focusing on global journalism studies, media effects on political attitudes and behaviors, and comparative survey research. Willnat is on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Global Media and China, and the Chinese Journal of Communication, and is the author of “The American Journalist Under Attack: Media, Trust and Democracy,” which analyzes the latest wave of The American Journalist project. He has lectured and conducted research in more than 30 countries and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and South Korea.