Meet the News Team

Cheryl Walker has been a media relations professional in higher education for more than two decades.On topics ranging from parent-teen relationships to voting behavior, she handles media relations for a range of academic and administrative departments, including the social sciences and admissions.

When Wake Forest was the first top-30 national university to drop the SAT/ACT requirement for undergraduate admissions, she coordinated the university’s media outreach regarding the test-optional decision. She has been a CASE and PRSA presenter and has collaborated with colleagues to win CASE awards, including a 2014 Award of Excellence. In 2000, she gained experience handling the public relations challenges of hosting a Presidential Debate.

Cheryl graduated from Wake Forest with a B.A. in English.

With nearly 25 years experience in public relations, targeted marketing, editing, writing, project management and content creation, Kim has spent her career cultivating and maintaining close and productive relationships as a communications professional. She has 18 years of higher education experience with Wake Forest.

Kim connects Wake Forest’s leadership and experts to trends in personal and career development, employment, mentoring, internships, economics, global issues, and arts and culture. She enjoys showcasing the role higher education plays in developing communities, workplaces and the world.

In addition, Kim manages social media @WakeForestNews and @InsideWFU.

Kim earned her B.A. in English from Loyola University in Maryland.

Laurie D. Willis has more than 30 years of experience in public relations, media relations, newspaper writing and editing. Throughout her career, she has worked for two institutions of higher learning and also at several newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun, The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and News & Record. Additionally, she previously served as a correspondent for The Boston Globe.

As Associate Director, News and Communications, Laurie will cover several areas, including Campus Life, Student Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion and Call to Conversation. She brings to Wake Forest her passion for writing and a desire to tell stories that positively impact people’s lives.

Laurie graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1986.

Mike Shaw is a talented videographer, social media strategist, journalist and communications professional whose career in higher education public relations, marketing and journalism has been a perfect fit for his creative approach and passion for storytelling.

As the Multimedia Producer at Wake Forest, Mike is an integral part of the Strategic Communications team where he contributes content and strategy for the University’s overall social media presence. In addition to producing video content, Mike manages news.wfu.edu, maintains the University’s directory of experts and operates a national broadcast TV studio.

Mike’s contributions to Wake Forest include more than 2.4 million video views since 2015 on University stories like commencement, move-in day, Hit the Bricks, project Pumpkin and more.

In 2016, he led the News Team through an award-winning redesign of news.wfu.edu in collaboration with the University’s Digital Team. While overseeing the broadcast television studio, Mike has filmed University experts for live appearances on Bloomberg Television, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC and more.

With more than a decade of experience in the communications industry, his prior experience includes work as a newspaper reporter at The Roanoke Times (Va.), a higher education marketer at Guilford College and a Minor League Baseball public address announcer.

Mike graduated from Wingate University with a B.S. in Communication – Broadcast Journalism in 2011.