Between her sophomore and junior year at Edgewood College in Madison, Alyssa Allemand was approached by the student newspaper’s advisor, the late Pat Simms.
The newspaper’s editor wasn’t returning, and Simms thought Allemand would be a good fit, as she was already working as a writing tutor. They met over coffee and Simms’ sales pitch was successful.
Allemand spent her final two years of college doing almost everything at the paper from assigning and editing stories to keeping the paper’s website and social media up to date.
“I just really liked not just the editing and the journalism, but also the project management of it,” Allemand recalled.
After she graduated, she was hired by WPR as a weekend digital editor in the summer of 2020 — amid a global pandemic and social unrest following the murder of George Floyd.
“2020 was really busy,” she said. “There were a lot of rallies and campaign visits on the weekends. And then the Bucks won the NBA Championship in 2021, so I did some Bucks coverage as well.”
In 2022, Allemand moved into a weekday digital editing role. In 2025, she became the lead editor for WPR’s social media. She’s put those project management skills to good use, helping revitalize our Instagram presence and spearhead the organization’s push into video.
Allemand says she enjoys running WPR’s socials because it allows her to “touch a lot of different areas of the organization,” from the news, talk and music departments. You may even catch her tagging along with reporters in the field, helping film video.
“I’m excited to tag along,” she said. “I also get to do fun stuff with member drive and ‘The Larry Meiller Show.’ That’s more personality-focused content.”
When she isn’t editing articles and videos, Allemand participates in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program, attends music trivia hosted by WPR’s Maureen McCollum and spends time with her cats, Denise and Dee. She’s also a fan of the Twilight franchise, previously co-hosting a now-defunct podcast about the series, and enjoys music from the 1970s and ’90s — specifically Stevie Nicks.
– Joe Schulz, Northeast Wisconsin reporter
