Todd Jones
![Photo portrait of author Todd Jones](/sites/default/files/styles/author/public/2022-08/author_portrait_Jones_Todd_Aug_2022.jpg?itok=b17SvfS8)
Todd Jones
Todd Jones has been a senior writer for Ohio State Alumni Magazine and University Marketing and Communications since 2017. He also served as host of the Ohio State podcast “One Degree Greater,” featuring Buckeyes in their first years after graduation.
Todd spent three decades as a newspaper reporter, including 20 years at The Columbus Dispatch, and has received more than 50 national, state and local journalism awards. He reported on stories from Australia, Greece, Scotland, Japan and nearly every major U.S. city while covering events such as Hurricane Katrina, the Olympics and two Ohio State football national championships. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
You can usually find Todd with his face in a nonfiction book, listening to all types of music, enjoying time with his wife, Deb Bertsch, or having yet another fashion faux pas corrected by his two young-adult daughters.
![Walt Keys wears eclipse glasses as he looks up at the darkened sky, watching the moon cover the sun during the solar eclipse event.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2024-06/OSAM_SU24_LandGrant_promo.jpg.webp?itok=u6GIyK-x)
Land-Grant Brewing founders Adam Benner and Walt Keys are Buckeye pals making a business brimming with college-like fun.
![Wearing an Ohio State-colored tropical shirt—that looks perfect for retirement or vacation—Gene Smith grins as he leans on some front-row seats at Ohio Stadium.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2024-05/Gene-Smith.jpg.webp?itok=wEHlkFei)
While Gene Smith wants to thank Buckeye Nation, we know the leader was a champion for student-athletes and a great staff.
![Betsy Ziegler sits on a modern upholstered chair in a space where many people in the background work or chat at small tables. A wall-size painting in the background adds to the lively feel of the scene, while Betsy poses with a genuine smile at the center of it. The middle-age white woman looks comfortable and stylish, with a chin-length haircut, stand-out glasses, modern-shaped clothes and a striking beaded broach that shines but also looks organically shaped.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2024-04/OSAM_SP24_Betsy_01_2.jpg.webp?itok=sraGnQ5Y)
Whether helping entrepreneurs, students or her 11-year-old son, the alumna is fiercely committed to making lives richer.
![Bhakti Bania, a pretty woman of Indian descent, looks happy as she laughs in response to someone off camera](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2024-03/OSAM_SP24_BhaktiBania_promo.jpg.webp?itok=w3cWLuNn)
This alumna and architecture firm CEO builds up her team and other women in the industry, as well as cool structures.
![Patrice Palmer seems proud, thoughtful and friendly but direct as she poses for this photo with a slight smile that nevertheless lights up her face. She seems to be looking the viewer in the eye. She is an older Black woman with shoulder-length hair and wears rectangular glasses, a business suit, a silk scarf and silver rings and watch.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2023-11/OSAM_WI23_Patrice_01_0.jpg.webp?itok=Ko8e1c8O)
The National Social Worker of 2022, Patrice Palmer is breaking the cycle of self-abuse one soul at a time. She began with her own, inspired by faith and family.
![At a table on a small stage, Gretchen Klingler, a white woman with a style reminiscent of the 1940s, leans across a table to shake hands with a white man wearing an American Legion uniform cap and a suit. They’re making eye contact, and next to them smiling is a white man in a suit, this one with a VFW uniform cap.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2023-10/OSAM_FA23_Gretchen_8_0.jpg.webp?itok=fzm_tUeb)
In Washington, D.C., or her local VFW, the 2019 graduate is driven by a need to care for her military family.
![Grinning while standing under the Goodyear blimp are two pilots in their crisp flying uniforms.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2023-10/OSAM_FA23_Blimp_1_0.jpg.webp?itok=pCu06chm)
Come along as Jerry Hissem ’93 and Joe Erbs ’91 soar over campus and share their favorite parts of their unique job.
![An older man happily chats, while wearing a scarlet shirt and long Buckeyes scarf, lounging on a bench along a soccer field at the Schumaker Complex. Behind him, the grass looks vibrant and soccer balls and field markings can be seen. Facing him are members of the men’s soccer team listening as he talks.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2023-11/DSC09143%20copy.jpg.webp?itok=XKDVC3G1)
Paul Halpern met the current student-athletes and coach Brian Maisonneuve to swap stories and see the new facility.
![Two men are next to each other smiling. On the left is a Black man standing who is wearing a short-sleeved button-down short that shows tattoos on his arms. He has a hand on the back of the wheelchair of, on the right, a white bearded man. He wears a button-down shirt and jeans.](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3/public/2023-06/Shazier%20Gentry%20promo.jpg.webp?itok=QW-2uLML)
Spinal cord injuries ended the football careers of these two alumni but left them determined to help other survivors.