Jeanna (Radzinski) Trotman, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Paul E. Ripley Award for Young Alumni. The award was established in 1994 and is presented to graduates who have enjoyed exceptional personal and professional success early in their careers.
Trotman graduated Cum Laude in 2012, with an honors degree of Bachelor of Arts in Communication, and minors in PR and Professional Speaking. During her time at LSSU, Trotman was a four-year NCAA Division-II student-athlete playing volleyball for the Lakers. She balanced athletics and academics, and during her junior year, completed an internship at WXYZ in the Sports Department with Don Shane and Tom Leyden. After college, she went on to complete a Master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism with a specialization in Sports Reporting at Boston University.
“I did everything I could do at Lake State, and I am so grateful for the range of opportunities that I was able to take advantage of and learn from,” commented Trotman. While she was a student at LSSU, she started Communication Alliance, a club for students in the communication program and hosted a weekly radio show on WLSO. She also wrote for the local paper and university website, including video and photo stories for LSSU.
“As a member of the honors program, I completed the honors courses aside from my regular credits,” said Trotman, “and I finished my career at Lake State with a trip to Costa Rica as part of my tropical ecology class, documenting the honors program with video and photo.” Trotman went on to say, “My honors thesis was a 60-plus page study on the landscape of women in sports broadcast journalism.” Trotman was also a member and leader of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, representing LSSU among the entire GLIAC.
Trotman’s first job in television was in 2014 at KAAL, the ABC affiliate in Rochester, Minnesota where she served as Sports Director. Trotman then returned to her home state of Michigan in 2017, working as Sports Director at WEYI/WSMH, the NBC and FOX affiliate in Flint. Trotman made it back to WXYZ in 2021 to rejoin the sports department she once interned in. Covering everything from the NHL playoffs and the NCAA basketball National Championship to the Ryder Cup and high school state championships, Trotman prides herself on storytelling with an emphasis on local sports. Going from a small market to her hometown of Detroit, she values and understands the role sports plays within a community.
Trotman grew up in the Detroit area and was raised on Detroit sports, and she enjoys being active in the community and in tune with her viewers. She married Zach Trotman in 2017 after they met as student-athletes while at LSSU. “My teammates stood up in my wedding and are still my very best friends,” Trotman commented, “and how lucky was I to find my soulmate and my husband on the hockey team.” Zach is retired from the NHL after nearly ten years of playing for the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins. The Trotman family resides in Metro Detroit with their son Luca (3) and daughter Quinn (1).