Clifford Blake Powers papers

Clifford Blake Powers is a 1978 graduate of Stratford Academy, an independent college preparatory school in Macon, Georgia. He also did a National Science Foundation summer studies program in energy and national policy at Stratford Academy. Powers studied engineering, English, and psychology at Auburn University before completing his bachelor's degree in journalism at Columbia College Chicago. As part of his undergraduate studies he served a photographic internship at Playboy magazine and earned his private pilot's license in 1980. He earned his Master of Science in Communications at the University of Tennessee in 1989, and earned a certificate in International Marketing and Management from the University of Alabama, Huntsville in 1991. In addition, he has undergone Air Force physiological training for high-altitude and specialized flight and holds military expert ratings with M-16 and issue pistol. Most recently he was a Fellow at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism for seminars on "U.S. Military: New President, New Outlook?" and "Digital Life: Policy and Privacy Online" and earned his Basic Emergency Management Certificate (MEMS) and completed the IGR Basic Ground Search and Rescue course.

Powers has more than 25 years' experience in communications, including work in high technology and biomedical journalism, public relations, and marketing and is an award winning author and photographer. While he worked in high school, his professional career began as an undergraduate working at WEGL and WAUD radio stations in Auburn, and at the Auburn Plainsman newspaper. He did freelance work for a variety of outlets, which led to his becoming Correspondent-at-Large for Space World Magazine in 1983. In 1985 he became Senior Science Writer for Schneider Services International in support of Public Affairs Office operations at the U.S. Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center where he managed disaster preparedness planning, productivity analysis, office automation development, and edited the base technical magazine among other duties.

After earning his Master's, Powers worked for Essex Corporation, where he was the project manager (publications) for the First United States Microgravity Laboratory mission (USML-1), the Second United States Microgravity Laboratory mission (USML-2), the Astro-2 mission, the Gamma Ray Observatory lesson from space (flight visual), Spacelab J mission, and the first Tethered Satellite System mission (TSS-1).

After a time doing freelance work, he was hired by CST, Inc. to be the Director of Outreach for NASA's Space Product Development Program. He then worked at Purdue doing marketing for the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. While there, Powers took vacations to serve as a photojournalist in Iraq in 2007-2008. Powers later wrote a book featuring his photographs about the day-to-day life with troops in Iraq. In addition to print and broadcast work for a variety of outlets worldwide, he is also the author of "The Soviet Watchers" (his Master's thesis); "A Different View: Travels with Team Easy, Iraq 2007;" "A Different View: Travels to Al Qa'im and Beyond;" "A Bride to the Moon;" "A Different View: DJ, Doura, and Arab Jabour;" and "Flight of the Fantasy."

Source: As noted by Powers : http://blakepowers.net/?page_id=8