Gina Mizell
Gina Mizell joined The Oklahoman in August of 2011 as the new OSU beat writer. While growing up in Phoenix, Gina loved two things—being on stage, and sports. After spending almost 20 years as a competitive dancer and teacher, Gina decided to turn her full attention to pursuing a career in sports journalism while studying at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University.
Gina’s passion for sports, especially college football, comes from her upbringing. Her family has had ASU football season tickets for practically her entire life, and many of her favorite childhood memories took place in Sun Devil Stadium.
Gina majored in broadcast journalism at ASU, which allowed her to gain a variety of multimedia skills while she developed as a writer as the sports editor for the campus newspaper, The State Press, and as a freelance reporter for The Arizona Republic. Her coverage of the ASU women’s basketball team’s Elite Eight run in 2009 won first place in sport, team or sports beat coverage at the Arizona Newspapers Awards, while her profile of ASU athletic director Lisa Love took second place in sportswriting at the 2010 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards.
Since graduating in May of 2010, Gina has covered everything from the preps to the pros in four different states. She was awarded an internship/scholarship through the Association for Women in Sports Media in 2009, which sent her to San Diego to cover the Padres as an associate reporter for MLB.com for the 2010 season. After that, she worked as a sports reporter at the Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise, covering high schools and Lamar University sports.
Gina lives in Stillwater and is excited to get immersed in the environment surrounding OSU. She misses her family back in Phoenix but is considering getting a dog. Or maybe a fish. Baby steps.
