Dan Ronan

Dan Ronan is the Senior Director of Communications, Media Relations and Marketing at the American Bus Association (ABA), a Washington D.C. trade association representing the motorcoach, tourism and travel industry. He joined the ABA in June 2011 after three years as the media/corporate communications and community affairs manager for the American Automobile Association (AAA) of Texas/New Mexico, based in Irving, Texas. Ronan was hired at AAA in 2008 after a more than 20-year career in network and major market television. At ABA he leads the association's efforts with traditional media, social media, internal and external communication and crisis communication. The ABA is a more than three-thousand member trade association representing the over-the-road motorcoach, travel and tourism industry.

Early life and education

Ronan was raised in Chicago. Much of his childhood was spent with his grandparents, Leo and Agnes McDevitt. A lifelong Cubs fan, while a freshman, he regularly helped clean Wrigley Field after classes paying his tuition for high school. As an adult, Ronan became close friends with the retired Cubs, Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster Jack Brickhouse. One of Ronan's sons is named Jack in honor of Brickhouse.

Ronan obtained his B.S. degree in 2003 in agriculture journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after attending the university from 1978 to 1982. His college education was interrupted after the death of his 20-year-old brother Tim, who died when the car in which he was a passenger was run off the road by a suspected drunken driver. Ronan later finished his coursework at age 42 and earned his diploma. He has taken additional studies in aviation at Georgia State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he was trained as an advanced airplane crash investigator. Ronan will be awarded a master's degree in communications/public relations from Kent State University in December 2014.

Ronan holds a commercial pilot's license with multi-engine and instrument ratings. Because of his brother Tim's death, Ronan has dedicated his professional life to transportation safety issues. He is considered by those in the national media as an expert on automobile, motorcoach and aviation related matters, having been presented two Edward R. Murrow awards and eight Emmy Awards for journalism excellence.

Career

Early journalism career

Ronan began his love of journalism while in Warren Township High School. He worked at several suburban radio stations in Chicago as a news and sports reporter, including acting as the live moderator/host of the Waukegan, Illinois, City Council meetings, broadcast on WEFA-FM, while in his junior and senior years. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison he covered the State Legislature and Governor while carrying a full load of classes.

1983 to 1987

In 1983, Ronan joined the Mutual Broadcasting System in Arlington, Virginia, as a news editor, starting on the overnight shift as a tape editor. Within two years, he was promoted, often supervising the newsroom at night with the legendary network anchorman Fred Lowrey. Down the hall, Larry King was hosting a five and a half hour nightly show, interviewing guests and taking calls. Later Ronan represented all of the radio and television network news divisions for two speeches as the "pool producer" for President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office and at Camp David, Maryland. He was also the network producer for speeches for other high ranking government officials including then House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill.

1988 to 2001

In 1987, Ronan joined WJLA-TV in Washington, DC, as an assignment editor until 1988. From there he was hired at CNN in Atlanta, starting as a writer before being promoted to correspondent. Ronan was awarded a "National Emmy" for his writing as part of CNN's coverage of the Oklahoma City, Alfred Murrah Federal Building Bombing. Eventually, Ronan joined CNN's start-up network, CNN/Financial News, reporting for that network and on Moneyline with Lou Dobbs.^[1] In 2001, Ronan left CNN.^[2]

2001 to 2007

He joined WAGA in March 2001 as a reporter.^[3] Ronan is credited with breaking the February 2002 bizarre story of the Tri-State Crematory scandal and its owner Ray Brent Marsh, who had 300 or more bodies in his backyard, many older than five years old.

Ronan also traveled to Havana, Cuba, with the former President Jimmy Carter when Carter met with the Cuban ruler Fidel Castro. Other highlights included leading WAGA-TV's coverage of the shutdown of Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the hours after the September 11th attacks. Ronan was presented an RTNDA "Edward R. Murrow Award" for Journalism Excellence for his coverage of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and he also was honored with four Emmys while at WAGA.

In addition, he was one of the first journalists selected by the Pentagon to be "embedded" with U.S. soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq, in the weeks just before hostilities started. Ronan filed more than a dozen stories from the Iraq/Kuwait border while living with troops from Fort Stewart, Georgia. After the war started, he was selected to "embed" with the Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) as it deployed to Afghanistan.

Ronan joined WFAA-TV in August 2003 as a senior reporter until November 2007. While at WFAA he specialized in coverage of the aviation industry, in particular the Southwest Airlines accident in Chicago and the repeal of the Wright Amendment in Congress. He earned his second RTNDA "Edward R. Murrow Award" as part of WFAA's coverage of an 18-wheeler, truck hijacking/kidnapping that resulted in a high-speed chase through several Dallas area cities. At WFAA, Ronan was awarded three Emmys, one for his coverage of a fatal tornado. The others were for his investigation of a deadly, New Year's Day plane crash and personal stories of Texas families dealing with the loss of a loved one in Iraq. His reporting of the Addison, Texas, plane crash helped change the way air traffic controllers now handle pilots and planes that are in distress.

Ronan also reported while on board two NOAA weather flights that made numerous tracks into the "eye" of two of the most dangerous Atlantic hurricanes ever, Ivan and Rita. His reporting on Hurricane Rita was featured on ABC's Good Morning America.

After leaving WFAA in 2007, Ronan was a freelance correspondent for the Dallas/Fort Worth bureau of CBS Newspath. He also worked as a freelance media relations specialist for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, highlighting the severe shortage of controllers across the country.

AAA Texas/New Mexico

In May 2008, Ronan joined the American Automobile Association of Texas and New Mexico as the manager of corporate communications and community relations. Just weeks into the position, gasoline prices reached four dollars a gallon and Hurricane Ike struck Houston. Ronan helped lead AAA's media coverage through both major stories, including spending six days in Houston in the aftermath of Ike.

Ronan was AAA's regional spokesman, responsible for all of the newspaper, radio, television and social media coverage in both states. He was frequently interviewed about the dangers of texting and emailing while driving, gasoline prices, automobile safety, drunken driving, highway and road construction, fuel conservation and insurance issues. In addition, he was responsible for AAA's strategic media planning and crisis communication plan.

Public service

Ronan is a volunteer, serving as a member of the board of directors of "Snowball Express", a registered 501(c) 3 non-profit, assisting the families of American killed servicemen and women. As part of the team, he has helped to plan and organize four December galas, where hundreds of Snowball Families are honored for five days and four nights with an all expenses paid vacation, two weeks before Christmas. Snowball Express is held the second weekend in December. Hundreds of stories about Snowball Express appeared on CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, CNN and other media outlets. Ronan was also for five years a member and one year chairman of the Communications Industry/Faculty Advisory Board at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Personal life

Dan and Lori Waffenschmidt-Ronan have six children, five of whom are adopted. Lori is the manager of broadcast communications at American Airlines in Fort Worth, after having previously worked at CNN as an executive producer and at National Public Radio in Washington as a news presenter on All Things Considered. Lori and Simon worked together at NPR for five years before she joined CNN. Because of the care and love Ronan received as a child from his grandparents, he and Lori are big believers in adoption. Leo and Agnes McDevitt were in their early 70s when he moved in with them while in the third grade and he lived with them until his freshman year in high school.

Three of their children were adopted from foster or group homes in Georgia and were under the protection of the Department of Children and Family Services. Part of the story of their joys and struggles with adoption are in the recent book by National Public Radio correspondent and host Scott Simon Baby, We Were Meant For Each Other. In his book, Simon tells the story of the joy he and his wife Caroline discovered after adopting two girls from China. He also details the experiences of several other families who have adopted children including Sportswriter Frank Deford and his wife Carol.

A fan of both professional and college sports, Ronan is a 1983 graduate of the Joe Brinkman Umpire School in Florida, umpiring college baseball from 1983 through 1995 and officiating high school and small college basketball from 1981 through 1992.

Awards

During Ronan's career he was honored by his colleagues with eight Emmys and two Edward R. Murrow awards for journalism excellence, most notably for his coverage of the Space Shuttle explosion. His first National Emmy came at CNN for his work as a news writer during the first hours of coverage after the Oklahoma City bombing. He was also awarded an Emmy for his coverage of the arrest and conviction of the Atlanta Olympic Park Bomber, Eric Rudolph. His most recent Emmy came in October 2007, for his reporting and writing about north Texas soldiers and volunteers who served in Iraq.

References