Ole Miss alumna gives $250,000 to boost student media programs

Ashley Anderson Mattei’s $250,000 gift is set to strengthen the pipeline that carries Ole Miss students from campus newsrooms into professional media jobs. The alumna’s family foundation split the donation between a $50,000 challenge gift for the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center and a $200,000 endowment for the Mississippi Media Lab, backing both the day-to-day work students do now and the innovation Ole Miss wants to build next.

For Lafayette County and Oxford, the donation lands in a program that already reaches deep into student life. The S. Gale Denley Student Media Center, on the second floor of Bishop Hall, was established in 2004 and has become home to more than 100 student employees. The School of Journalism and New Media says any Ole Miss student, no matter the major, can work in student media, which means the newsroom is not limited to journalism majors. It is a campuswide training ground where students learn deadlines, editing, production and the pressure of making decisions in real time.

Mattei said the experience mattered in her own career. As an Ole Miss student, she worked in NewsWatch and Rebel Radio, where late nights and fast-moving assignments gave her the confidence and practical edge she carried into broadcast journalism. Her gift is aimed at making sure current students get that same advantage, with the challenge money helping immediate operations and the endowment supporting longer-term growth.

The Mississippi Media Lab gives that effort a future-facing piece. Ole Miss announced in April 2025 that award-winning journalist Marshall Ramsey would serve as its inaugural director, leading a student-news operation designed to connect student-produced content with media outlets around the nation. By pairing that lab with the student media center, the university is tying traditional reporting, audio and broadcast work to a broader push for experimentation and wider distribution.

The timing also linked the gift to Ole Miss Giving Day 2026, which ran from 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 14, to 5:48 p.m. Wednesday, April 15. The university used the campaign to rally support for schools, departments and student priorities across campus, and journalism was one of the clearest examples of how alumni giving can translate into tangible opportunity.

The School of Journalism and New Media says it is also expanding its student experience fund to help students stand out through scholarships, internships, travel, new technology and dynamic learning spaces. Its mission covers journalism, integrated marketing communications, and media and communication, and Mattei’s gift adds another layer to that effort: a chance to keep student media strong in Oxford while preparing students for work far beyond Lafayette County.