MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A trio of acclaimed alumni are now part of the Wall
of Fame in MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment: filmmaker Christin
Baker, music producer-engineer F. Reid Shippen and entertainment
manager/publicist Traci Thomas.
The three join the 82
media leaders already included on the list, which is featured inside the
university’s Bragg Media and Entertainment Building in a display of member
photos expanded in 2015 to encompass an interactive digital sign.
Baker, a
1997 cum laude MTSU graduate and Student Government Association president with
a Bachelor of Science degree in radio and TV production, has been telling
stories with film since she was 13 and her family got their first VHS
camcorder. She began directing music videos and comedy parodies with
neighborhood kids and formally entered the film world in 1999 with the award-winning
“Mr. Karaoke in Albania,” a short documentary about a relief worker who
traveled around Albania and set up karaoke shows in refugee camps.
She founded and is
chief executive officer of the Los Angeles, California-based digital
distribution company, tellofilms.com,
a multiplatform subscription service for web series focusing on lesbian issues.
In addition to serving as executive producer and distributor of “Nikki &
Nora, the first unaired network pilot to be re-imagined as a digital series,
Baker brought home the “Best Director” prize from the 2016 Raindance Film
Festival’s Web Fest Awards for tello’s original series “Maybelle.” A
member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences, Baker directs the new sci-fi series “Riley Parra,”
which premieres July 15, and has two feature scripts in the development
process.
Shippen, a
1994 MTSU graduate with a Bachelor of Science in recording industry management,
is a mixer, producer and engineer as well as an entrepreneur, consultant and
business owner with interests including real estate, media and public relations,
publishing, investment and manufacturing. His engineering and producing credits
include a wide range of artists such as Ingrid Michaelson, India.Arie, Sam
Hunt, Cage the Elephant, Kenny Chesney, Gloria Gaynor, Eric Church, Steven
Tyler, Kelsea Ballerini, MercyMe and One Republic.
His mixing work on seven
albums ranging from CeCe Winans’ self-titled 2001 release to Jonny Lang’s 2006
“Turn Around” to Chris Tomlin’s “And If Our God Is for Us …” 2010 collection
has so far earned Shippen seven different Grammy Awards. He’s served as co-chair
of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’
Producers & Engineers Wing and owns and mixes projects at Robot
Lemon, a Nashville private studio with a unique and highly customized hybrid analog/digital studio
setup. Shippen also produces, records and is actively involved in artist
development.
Thomas, a
1994 MTSU graduate with a Bachelor of Science in advertising and public
relations, began her post-college career as a publicist, spending 20-plus years
working with artists including Kris Kristofferson, Drive-By
Truckers, Steve Earle and Old Crow Medicine Show and with the International
Bluegrass Music Association and MerleFest annual music event. She’s spent the
last decade-plus working under the umbrella of Nashville’s Thirty Tigers
entertainment company, which provides artist publishing, marketing,
distribution and management services, and currently manages multi-award-winning
Americana treasure Jason Isbell, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, John Moreland,
and the sibling duo
Allison Moorer & Shelby Lynne.
A co-founder
of the Americana Music Association, Thomas was recently honored by the Country
Music Hall of Fame and Museum at its 10th annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum
for “forg[ing] a career by elevating tradition-rich roots music-makers to
popular acclaim.” The honor pays homage to pioneering agent-manager Louise
Scruggs, wife and savvy business partner of Hall of Fame member Earl Scruggs.
The MTSU
College of Media and
Entertainment Wall of Fame began in 2000 as a way to honor successful
mass-communication graduates and inspire current students to continue working
toward their goals. Each of the college’s three departments submits
an honoree for consideration each year, and the Wall of Fame ceremony then
becomes a part of the college’s annual awards day for students in the School of Journalism, Department of Recording
Industry and Department of Electronic Media Communication with scholarships and
other honors.
One of the largest communication programs in the
nation, the MTSU College
of Media and Entertainment offers degree concentrations in 14
major areas — ranging from journalism to digital media and media management to
recording industry management — and is accredited by the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
For more
information about MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/media.
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