Andrew Nynka, Ika Koznarska Casanova leave The Weekly's staff

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Editors Andrew Nynka and Ika Koznarska Casanova have left The Ukrainian Weekly's editorial staff effective February 6.

Mr. Nynka, an editor with The Weekly since April 2001 who worked out of its home office in Parsippany, N.J., will continue to contribute to the newspaper as a special correspondent. He hopes to find work as a daily newspaper reporter.

During his time at The Weekly, Mr. Nynka covered Ukraine's participation in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, both as a reporter and a photographer. He also covered Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's speech before a joint meeting of Congress and his meeting in the White House with President George W. Bush in 2005. During one of his trips to Ukraine he reported from a jail in Kharkiv, Ukraine. His reporting duties also took him to the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

In early December 2004, when Roman Woronowycz, The Weekly's Kyiv correspondent at the time, left the staff, Mr. Nynka volunteered to serve at the Kyiv Press Bureau while The Weekly searched for a new bureau chief. Mr. Nynka served in that capacity through mid-January, covering some of the most important developments of the Orange Revolution.

In addition to covering politics, both in Ukraine and the United States, Mr. Nynka's reporting covered religion, Ukrainian society, economics, culture and a variety of other topics.

While working for The Weekly, Mr. Nynka earned a master's degree in journalism from New York University. He also holds a B.A. in political science and economics from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and pursued additional studies in photography.

Ms. Casanova was on The Weekly staff as an assistant editor in 1980-1981. After working for the journal Suchasnist and The Ukrainian Museum in New York, she re-joined the staff part-time as an assistant editor in 1990. She was later named an editor and assumed the duties of arts editor of The Weekly.

While at The Weekly, Ms. Casanova prepared such noteworthy series as "On the state of contemporary Ukrainian church art and architecture" (a 17-part series) and "The Ukrainian Museum and Ukrainian culture after independence" (four parts).

She conducted interviews with such notables as former Soviet political prisoner Leonid Plyushch, Education Minister Petro Talanchuk and writer and political activist Ivan Drach.

Ms. Casanova holds a B.A. in French and an M.A. with an A.B.D. in comparative literature from New York University. She also studied abroad in Innsbruck, Austria, and at New York's Parsons School of Design. She is proficient in French, German and Spanish and travels extensively.

Ms. Casanova is executive director of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, which is based in Jewett, N.Y.

The Weekly staffers bid a fond farewell to Mr. Nynka and Ms. Casanova during the first week of February, wishing their colleagues well in their future endeavors.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 12, 2006, No. 7, Vol. LXXIV

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