Isabel Nissley’s path to the WVXU-FM newsroom began in the eighth grade at Walnut Hills High School, where she met school newspaper volunteer advisor Howard Wilkinson.
When Nissley applied for a reporter opening at WVXU-FM, she wrote: “I made the decision that led me to write this cover letter in eighth grade at Walnut Hills High School . . . (when) I enrolled in the introductory journalism course. I was captivated. I loved exploring new ideas through interviewing, writing to serve an audience I cared deeply for and being part of the newsroom team. And, in the news writing class, I connected with my first mentor: WVXU’s Howard Wilkinson. Mr. Wilkinson’s passion for journalism as a public necessity fueled my desire to work for your newsroom.”
Nissley, 21, starts Monday at Cincinnati Public Radio, two weeks after earning a journalism degree from Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism.
Wilkinson — my pal and colleague for 50 years from The Post student newspaper at Ohio University to the Cincinnati Enquirer and WVXU-FM — beams when he talks about the former student who is now our colleague.
“I could see right away that she had extraordinary talent. That’s why I spent a lot of time mentoring her,” says Wilkinson, who has been a volunteer advisor for journalism teacher Samantha Gerwe-Perkins’ Chatterbox newspaper staff for 10 years. “I encouraged her to go to OU.”
Nissley will be covering the environment beat. The role was created after the departure of veteran anchor-reporter Ann Thompson, who left the station in October to join the Brick by Brick solutions-based public affairs unit for Cincinnati’s WCET-TV and Dayton’s WPTD-TV.
The 2020 Walnut Hills graduate has interned at Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan and Oklahoma City’s KOSU-FM, in addition to writing for The Post and Athens County Independent while in college. For the Chatterbox she was deputy online editor in chief, opinion section editor and fine arts section editor.
“I loved how journalism allowed me to engage with the people who surrounded me and to ask so many questions. And I liked the collaborative problem-solving that happened in the newsroom every day,” she said about her Chatterbox experience.
“I enjoy taking time to delve into an issue, explore nuanced perspectives, examine data, look at history and tell meaningful stories with deep context. And I am drawn to journalism that reveals a little bit of our shared human-ness. I’m also very excited to cover the environment beat.”
Nissley was introduced to WVXU-FM “as an elementary schooler, being carted around in my friends’ parents’ cars.” She’s excited to begin her career in her adopted hometown.
“Growing up I moved a few times — from Minnesota to Pennsylvania to Canada — before settling in Cincinnati. Because of that spatial impermanence, it took years in college (and time away from Cincinnati) to realize my deep connection to the place I grew up,” she says.
“During my past reporting jobs — in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Interlochen, Michigan, and Athens and Columbus, Ohio — I’ve admired the familiarity longtime reporters have with the places they cover. I am excited to start at WVXU with a little bit of that familiarity myself,” she says.
Maryanne Zeleznik, Cincinnati Public Radio vice president for news and Morning Edition host, says Nissley’s “enthusiasm for reporting on her hometown and focusing on the environment is sure to make her reporting valuable to our listeners and readers.”
“I am delighted by this hiring,” Wilkinson says. “It’s amazing to me that someone I knew in eighth grade is going to be a colleague of mine. It just blows my mind.”
