A child of the 1960s and '70s, Mark Mayfield channeled an obsession with spaceflight into a journalism career that included coverage of the earliest shuttle flights as a reporter for United Press International. He went on to work for 10 years as a writer and editor at USA TODAY before making a transition into the national magazine industry. He served as editor-in-chief of House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Southern Accents and Art & Antiques magazines. The first thing he did after establishing his own media company in 2005 was to return to the subject he has enjoyed his entire life: space and rocketry. He created a new magazine called LAUNCH and served as its chief editor, giving him an opportunity to interview many of the astronauts, flight controllers and engineers who built America's space program. Mark is a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he served as editor of the campus newspaper, The Crimson White, during his senior year, when he was also named the top male graduate in journalism in the university's College of Communication and Information Sciences. He was also named UA's top journalism alumnus of 1990. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors for the university's communication school, and on the Publications Advisory Committee for the alumni magazine.