Meet the
Reynolds Center Staff
At The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism, our staff is instrumental in accomplishing our mission of providing journalists with training in order to improve the quality of media coverage on business and the economy. We seek out talented individuals with new and fresh perspectives and are always striving to be a better center and put out the best content for other journalists to learn from.
Jeffrey Timmermans
Director
Jeffrey Timmermans has more than two decades of experience as a financial journalist and journalism educator.
He has worked as a reporter in Tokyo for The Wall Street Journal and as a managing editor for Dow Jones Newswires in Hong Kong and Singapore. He also worked for Bain & Company, leading the global strategy consulting firm’s public-relations efforts in Asia.
Timmermans joined ASU Cronkite in 2021 from The University of Hong Kong (HKU), where he served for more than 10 years as the director of HKU’s undergraduate journalism program and was an elected member of HKU Senate. In that time, Timmermans developed a comprehensive postgraduate business-journalism curriculum widely considered the best in Asia and taught news reporting and economics to undergraduates. He also founded a successful media consulting firm with multinational clients including JPMorganChase, Credit Suisse, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), CBRE, and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.
He is married with one exceptionally precocious daughter and is proud to be a Sun Devil with Lion Rock spirit.
Julianne Culey
Assistant Director
Originally from Michigan, Julianne received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Marketing with a minor in Women’s Studies from Central Michigan University and promptly moved to Phoenix upon graduation to get out of the cold.
Julianne then completed her Master’s of Arts in Sociology at Arizona State University with an emphasis in feminist theory and studies. She credits her drive and determination to her mother who always insisted she could do anything her brother could and has focused her efforts on women’s rights, inclusion, and representation.
This led her to become the Marketing Coordinator at ASU’s Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology where she was able to assist the center promote its research and programming initiatives through the state. After 8 years of living in Phoenix, Julianne considers Arizona to be her home and wants to do her part in creating a more inclusive environment for other girls and women in the state that continuously encourages them to help shape their future and looks forward to continuing that work with the Reynolds Center.
Alicia Barrón
Digital Producer
Alicia has worked as a reporter, digital producer, viral video curator, and most recently as a writer during her 20 years as a journalist. She loves the ever-evolving world of news and thrives on learning about digital media and how it influences our day-to-day lives.
Sahara Sajjadi is a recent graduate from Arizona State University, holding a bachelors in political science with minors in women studies and justice studies, along with a certificate in cross sector leadership. She is now pursuing a master’s in mass communications at the Cronkite School.
During her undergrad, she was involved with several different organizations, serving as the president of ASU Young Dems, a curriculum developer and content creator for the Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention program, a tutor at RISE (Refugee Integration, Stability, and Education,) and a regular volunteer in the community.
Sahara is passionate about solving a number of different issues, both domestic and global, ranging from the refugee crisis, lack of accessible healthcare, houselessness, gender inequality, and other societal flaws. She is pursuing a journalism career to give a voice to the voiceless, highlighting their stories, and finding solutions to issues that have plagued society for years. She is excited to continue her work here at The Reynolds Center!
Kelechukwu Iruoma is a multi-award-winning journalist with seven years of experience covering business, environment, politics, global health, and development, including exposing corruption, and social injustice.
Some of his stories, which focused on investigative and development journalism have made tremendous impacts and address different social issues and problems. His stories have appeared on NPR, Devex, Al Jazeera, Thomson Reuters Foundation, African Business, The Fish Site, TRT World, and several others.
Kelechukwu has also worked for non-profits Wild Africa Fund and WildAid as a communications specialist, where he developed and led media campaigns to raise awareness of wildlife conservation issues. He also worked for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC) as the Southern Nigeria Field Coordinator investigating and researching organized crime.
Kelechukwu is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Mass Communication at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
Mackenzie is a lawyer. She recently realized what many have known for a while: that law practice can be a dry & slow slog towards progress.
After working in the NY judiciary, she’s thus come to Cronkite (and her home state of AZ) to hone her on-air presence and digital media skills, and help demystify the law & policy issues affecting all of us. Mackenzie appears on the Last Podcast Network’s “Some Place Under Neith,” and can be found on social media platforms and Substack @MkzJoyBrennan. She also remains involved with reproductive justice advocacy (but you know not to take anything she says here as legal advice, right?).