Center for Community News Announces 2024 Faculty Champions

The 38 honorees are helping to forge a sustainable future for local news through university-led reporting programs

BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Center for Community News at the University of Vermont today announced its third annual cohort of CCN Faculty Champions, a national initiative to support the people running local news reporting programs at U.S. colleges and universities across the country. News-academic partnerships have emerged as a critical contributor to the national news landscape and one solution to the crisis facing local news.

“The news coverage that these programs are providing in coordination with their local outlets is helping to meet critical information needs,” said CCN Director Richard Watts. “Most importantly, they offer students a chance to contribute to public life and develop skills that will serve them in journalism and far beyond.”

The faculty awarded this year represent 24 different states and 13 Minority Serving Institutions. Sixteen of the honorees have proposed partnerships with public media and/or local radio stations. Eighteen will lead democracy and elections coverage this fall and three lead bilingual reporting programs.?

Aaron Hanlon, Colby College

Aaron R. Hanlon is an associate professor of English and affiliated faculty in Science, Technology, and Society at Colby College, with research interests in philosophy of fiction, Enlightenment history and philosophy of science, and the computational study of literature. He is the author of two books, A World of Disorderly Notions: Quixote and the Logic of Exceptionalism (University of Virginia Press, 2019) and Empirical Knowledge in the Eighteenth-Century Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and the co-editor of British Literature and Technology, 1600-1830 (Bucknell University Press, 2023). His current book project, under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press, is “Understanding Science Denial.” In addition to his academic research, he has published over 75 popular press articles in venues including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and others. Aaron completed his doctorate in literary history of Enlightenment Britain at the University of Oxford in 2012 and is an avid supporter of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. in the English Premier League.

Alan Miller, Denison University

Alan D. Miller teaches journalism at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he has taught for 25 years. He also is a mentor, editor and reporter for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of the Denison Journalism Program.

Miller served as executive editor of The Columbus Dispatch and regional editor for USA Today Network Ohio’s 21 newsrooms across the state from 2015-2022.

He started at The Dispatch as a reporter in 1984 and has covered regional news, urban affairs, Columbus City Hall, and higher education. He was an assistant city editor, state editor and assistant managing editor before becoming managing editor in 2004 and editor in 2015. He is a past president of both the national Associated Press Media Editors association and its foundation, and a member of the professional advisory board for the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

He previously worked at The Repository in Canton, The Daily Record in Wooster and the Orrville Courier-Crescent. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from Ohio University. In his spare time, he mends fences, cuts hay and picks apples at his family’s Ohio Amish country farm, which has been in his family for about 200 years. He’s on X and Instagram @amiller78.

Alix Bryan-Campos, Virginia Commonwealth University

Alix Bryan-Campos leads the Capital News Service program at the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University. Capstone students publish articles and videos with news partners throughout Virginia. Partners include large and small dailies, weeklies, NPR and PBS affiliates, local TV news stations and digital nonprofit news sites. The program was launched as a spring course in 1994 to cover the state General Assembly. Bryan-Campos took over in 2019, and helped launch a fall version of the course that covers elections. She also leads the newsroom and helps create a collaborative production space for Robertson School mass communication students, with many experiential learning opportunities. As a faculty champion, Bryan-Campos will utilize funding for students to create an Election 2024 guide distributed to Virginia media.

Andrea Lorenz, Kent State University

Andrea Lorenz, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of journalism in the Media and Journalism School at Kent State University. She researches intersections between local news, political campaigns, and democracy, having recently joined the Kent State faculty after doing her doctoral studies in media and communication at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. This Fall, she will be working toward integrating the Kent State NewsLab into journalism curriculum. Through a pilot project, students in her Politics and Journalism course will produce 2024 election content for use by news organizations throughout Ohio.

Andrew Bottomley, SUNY Oneonta

Andrew J. Bottomley is Associate Professor of Media Studies at SUNY Oneonta. He is author of Sound Streams: A Cultural History of Radio-Internet Convergence (University of Michigan Press, 2020) and co-editor (with Michele Hilmes) of the Oxford Handbook of Radio and Podcasting (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is recipient of the 2018 Dissertation Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). His research has been published in various academic journals including Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Journal of Radio & Audio Media, Popular Music & Society, and Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television. He is a Research Associate on the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force and a Faculty Advisory Committee member for the SUNY Institute for Local News.

Annemarie Franczyk, SUNY Buffalo State

Annemarie Franczyk is a professor of journalism at SUNY Buffalo State and freelance writer with American City Business Journals. She spent the majority of her career in print, reporting on the health care industry. She has a bachelor's in journalism from St. Bonaventure University and a master's in health administration and a doctorate in health policy, both from D'Youville University.

Annette Nevins, Southern Methodist University

Annette Bernhard Nevins, Visiting Professor of Practice for the Division of Journalism in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, supports student journalists in growing partnerships between college reporting programs and local news organizations to amplify community voices and to explore solutions for actionable change in underreported neighborhoods. This summer she led a group of students to report on revitalization efforts along historically disinvested areas along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South Dallas. Her journalism students collaborate with other university programs and professionals on innovative storytelling, podcasting, and video projects to create empathy, understanding and pathways for change to systemic inequalities in areas often not covered in growing news deserts. Other planned student projects include reporting on young voters and challenges in finding affordable student housing in a tightening rental market. Nevins, who has over 30 years of experience as a professional journalist, continues to write and report for national publications, most recently contributing to a team reporting project that has been recognized as a Pulitzer finalist.

Brent Walth, University of Oregon

Brent Walth is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Brent has worked as a staff writer and managing editor for Willamette Week; Oregon State Capitol correspondent for the Eugene Register-Guard; and Washington, D.C., correspondent and senior investigative reporter for The Oregonian. Brent also served as a 2006 Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University.

He's a recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award, the nation’s top honor for business and financial reporting, and at The Oregonian, he shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The UO School of Journalism and Communication inducted Brent into its Hall of Achievement in 2014.

At the SOJC, Brent teaches writing and reporting courses, including Investigative Reporting, Data Journalism and Solutions Journalism. Brent is co-founder and director of the award-winning Catalyst Journalism Project, which has helped scores of SOJC journalists publish their work with professional news organizations. Brent also serves as co-director of the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism, which selects and places interns at news organizations around Oregon.

Charlotte Teague, Alabama A&M University

Dr. Charlotte Teague is an award-winning teacher and professional writer. Before entering academia, she worked as a journalist and technical and scientific writer. She holds a PhD in English from Morgan State University where she specialized in Language and Professional Writing (Creative, Media, & Technical). While there, she was a member of the media team that won a Governor’s Commendation Award for the State of Maryland for media writing. Teague is associate professor and chairperson of English and Foreign Languages at Alabama A&M University (AAMU) where she has been teaching a variety of basic and professional writing courses, including journalism workshop, for more than 19 years.

Christopher Keaty, SUNY Broome

Assistant Professor Chris Keaty is the advisor for the SUNY Broome student newspaper “The Fulcrum,” which covers both on campus and community content. Professor Keaty also teaches “Television Production”, “Video Production” and “Writing for the Media” classes. This semester SUNY Broome will look to partner with local affiliates to provide student written/video content from these classes. The SUNY Broome Communications Department also works with local affiliates to provide standout journalism students to create content for their broadcasts.?Keaty is a former News Broadcast director for WICZ Binghamton and also works closely with Binghamton University as a technical director for D1 ESPN sports broadcasts.

Crystal McMorris, Delta College

Crystal McMorris is the coordinator of the journalism program at Delta College in Michigan. She also is advisor for the award-winning Delta Collegiate student media, facilitating print, web, social media, video and audio productions. McMorris, professor of English, teaches news writing, mass media, and media literacy courses, as well as English composition. She is past president of the Michigan Community College Press Association and has served as vice president of the Community College Journalism Association. She believes that reliable community-based journalism is essential for a functional democracy, and has begun partnering with the college’s public radio station to expand the reach of her students’ journalism.

McMorris holds an associate’s degree in graphic design from Muskegon Community College, a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Central Michigan University, and a master’s degree in composition and communication from CMU. Before joining academia in 2009, McMorris was an award-winning columnist and crime reporter for a daily local newspaper in Michigan.

When not teaching or advising student media, McMorris enjoys rock-hunting and berry-picking on her camp site on Lake Superior, growing tomatoes and flowers in her garden, and hanging out with her husband, Mike, and their three dogs.

Edward Arke, Messiah University

Ed Arke is a Professor of Communication at Messiah University in central Pennsylvania. He primarily teaches broadcast and journalism classes along with media literacy. A teaching career of over 25 years followed 13 years in radio, primarily as a news anchor, with the last seven years at the NPR affiliate in Harrisburg, PA.

Recently, he has been introducing college students to Fred Rogers and the Neighborhood through a first-year seminar class for incoming students. He is currently researching Fred’s contributions as a media literacy pioneer before such a thing was really recognized by the academic community. Ed grew up in suburban Pittsburgh (Penn Hills) and has degrees from Shippensburg and Duquesne Universities. Growing up he would watch the Neighborhood on WQED, where he later volunteered during fundraising auctions as a high school student. He once saw Fred Rogers preach at an ordination ceremony for a friend.

He now lives in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania where he continues to be a die-hard Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

Eileen Gilligan, SUNY Oswego

Eileen Gilligan worked as a daily newspaper reporter in Delaware, where she enjoyed covering state government and politics. She next became a feature freelance writer when she opened a coffee and dessert cafe at the beach. A stint as an adjunct journalism instructor led her to graduate school and a Phd in journalism and mass communication research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is in her 20th year teaching at SUNY Oswego, where she will begin a course in local news coverage in fall 2024. Her favorite course is copy editing.

Elaine Salisbury, University at Albany

Elaine Salisbury is a print journalist whose work has taken her abroad to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and throughout the United States. She has worked as an editor for the Associated Press and as a reporter for Reuters. Salisbury’s two published books include?The Cruelest Miles?(NY: Norton, 2003) and?Provenance?(NY: Penguin, 2009).?The Cruelest Miles?is in development for a film by Walden Media.?Provenance?has been named an ALA Notable Book, Edgar Award Finalist, and Oprah Reading Pick.

Elio Leturia, Columbia College Chicago

An associate professor at Columbia College Chicago's Communication Department, Elio Leturia (Fulbright scholar USA, 1990-91 and Spain, 2022) teaches bilingual multimedia journalism and graphic design. His academic and professional journey includes stints at the Detroit Free Press, the Tribune Company in Chicago, and El Comercio in Lima, Peru. Additionally, he was a graphic arts assistant professor at the Universidad de Lima School of Communications.

Leturia's work has been recognized by the Society for News Design, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Associated Church Press, American Institute of Graphic Arts, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He is a well-traveled speaker, having presented in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

His scholarly and multimedia productions have been featured in national and international publications and journals. His documentary “Tita Turns 100” received the Lisagor Award for Best Short Film Documentary in 2017. A board member of the Chicago Chapter of the Fulbright Association, Leturia also manages its blog and is an ensemble member of Aguijón Theater in Chicago. He authored the bilingual historical book “Aguijón 30 Years,” published in 2019.

Leturia holds a B.S. and a Licenciatura in Communications from Universidad de Lima, Peru, and an M.S. in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Elmer Ploetz, SUNY Fredonia

Ploetz, who joined the SUNY Fredonia faculty in 2008, was the first faculty member for the journalism major, which he helped design. He has advised The Leader, the student print and online newspaper, since 2009 and received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019.

Away from the classroom, Ploetz is the founding editor-in-chief of The Buffalo Hive, a new nonprofit journalism organization which launched in July of 2024. It is dedicated to covering arts and culture in the Buffalo and Western New York region. He has also produced two long-form video documentaries on the history of Buffalo’s early punk rock scene, has edited the JAM (Journal of Americana Music) and has served on the boards of directors for the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Association.

Before joining the faculty at SUNY Fredonia, Ploetz spent 27 years in print journalism, the last 23 at The Buffalo News (where he produced the paper’s first online videos and worked as a news reporter and sports copy editor).

Ploetz received his B.A. in journalism from St. Bonaventure University and his M.A. in American Studies from the University at Buffalo.

Eric Hardiman, University at Albany

Eric Hardiman is Associate Professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University at Albany. His studies mental health interventions, Veterans, and peer support technologies. He has conducted research on peer support in disaster settings, both in New York City following 9/11/01 and Indonesia following the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami. He is Principal Investigator for the statewide evaluation of the Dwyer Veterans Program as well as the NY State Office of Mental Health's Dean's Consortium Project on Evidence-Based Mental Health Practice. He is the Faculty Advisor for the campus radio station and co-hosts "The Social Workers" talk show/podcast.

Gayane Torosyan, SUNY Oneonta

Gayane Torosyan holds her Ph.D. (2003) and Masters Professional (1997) degrees from the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She worked as a full-time news and public affairs producer and talk show host at the NPR affiliate Iowa Public Radio from 2000 to 2005, before joining the faculty of the Department of Communication and Media at the State University of New York. In her capacity as Associate Professor and long-time department chair at SUNY Oneonta, Torosyan has taught a wide variety of undergraduate-level courses in journalism and media studies.

During her prior career as a journalist, Torosyan has produced news and documentary stories for National Public Radio, Native News Network and Latino U.S.A. Her academic work captures a broad scope of topics from journalism education to digital activism. She has attended workshops and received grants to implement curricula based on applied learning and high-impact practices in journalism education. She has been leading her department’s student learning outcome assessment program since becoming chair in 2011, and has conducted a number of journalism program reviews at colleges across the State of New York.

Gayle Golden, University of Minnesota

Gayle (G.G.) Golden is a Senior Lecturer, Charnley Professor and Morse-Alumni Distinguished University Teacher at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. She teaches community journalism, literary journalism, magazine writing, beginning and advanced news reporting.

Since 1999, she has coordinated practicum classes that place students in newsrooms in the Twin Cities for the semester as final learning experiences. She coordinates funded summer internships for students in news organizations serving marginalized communities in urban areas and has developed a growing effort to pair school-funded student interns with under-resourced rural Minnesota news outlets. She also teaches a spring class in which students cover ""hidden"" student ""communities'' through an online publication known as AccessU, an effort that has focused on areas that include disabilities, addiction and recovery, rural students, nontraditional students, Black communities, mental health diagnoses, LGBTQ+ identities and first-generation status. Golden served on the Minnesota Daily's Board of Directors for 17 years – as its director for four – and has served on university committees on educational policy, liberal education and disabilities issues. She was an award-winning science writer for The Dallas Morning News and a freelancer, with articles published in regional and national publications, including Texas Monthly and the New York Times.

Geoff Campbell, University of Texas at Arlington

Geoff Campbell is an award-winning instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches journalism classes. He wrote a chapter on attribution that appears in Writing for media audiences: a handbook for multi-platform news, advertising and public relations, which was published by Kendall Hunt. In 2022, he established the online news site Lone Star Sentinel to serve news desert communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and to provide journalism students with experiential learning opportunities in community journalism. Now known as Arlington Sentinel, this vehicle for the news desert initiative now focuses its coverage on Arlington, Texas, and since fall 2023 has also included work by television broadcast students. Geoff earned the College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Teaching Award for Faculty Outside the Tenure Stream in fall 2023. He also received the Outstanding Adjunct Teacher Award from the UT Arlington College of Liberal Arts in both 2013 and 2011. He is currently working on a book manuscript that explores his mother’s experience of unjust incarceration during World War II for the crime of ancestry.

George Giokas, Sony Brook University

George Giokas has been an adjunct lecturer at Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism for 17 years. He has taught many of the school’s journalism programs including news literacy.

In the Spring of 2024, he was the recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Excellence in Adjunct Teaching award. He is also co-chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee for SUNY’s Institute for Local News. In the Fall of 2023 Giokas created a course called “Working Newsroom” where students work on assignments from local newspapers and news outlets. More than 60 local stories were published in the Spring of 2024.

Giokas started his journalism career as a reporter in Westchester and then spent many years at Newsday as one of its top editors. Giokas is also one of the founders of HealthDay, the country’s largest syndicator of consumer health news. He served as the managing editor of its Custom Content division and also as the company’s board chairman.

Giokas is a graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television’s screenwriting program, has been a columnist for Newsday and BusinessWeek Online and is the creator of the Pencil Press Gazette on Substack. He is also the author of the young adult novel Nickel Ice.

Gretchen Macchiarella

Gretchen Macchiarella is an associate professor in the Journalism Department at Cal State, Northridge focusing on?Digital Media and Emerging Journalistic Practices. She worked her industry career in newspapers finishing up as the managing editor for digital at the Ventura County Star. Macchiarella has a professional and research interest in innovation and digital news production. She earned a master's degree in digital journalism and design from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and her BA from UCSB despite her job at the Daily Nexus student newspaper. A boundless student media supporter, Macchiarella started at CSUN as the advisor of the Daily Sundial. She believes the connection between student journalists and the industry is invaluable and she hopes to be a key conduit for that connection in Los Angeles.?

Jacob Wheeler, Northwestern Michigan College

Jacob Wheeler coaches student journalists as the adjunct faculty advisor to the White Pine Press, the award-winning, student-run newspaper at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan. Wheeler also edits and publishes the Glen Arbor Sun newspaper in nearby Leelanau County. His reporting has won awards from Project Censored and the Michigan Press Association. A native of Denmark, he has filed stories from five continents, and his work has appeared in such publications as Bridge Michigan, Christian Science Monitor, Crain’s Detroit Business, Detroit Free Press, In These Times, The Rotarian, San Francisco Chronicle, Teaching Tolerance, and Utne Reader. Wheeler has written two books from his time reporting in Guatemala: Between Light and Shadow (University of Nebraska Press, 2011), about Guatemala’s child adoption industry, and Angel of the Garbage Dump, 2022, about a social worker from Maine who launched a school for the children of the Guatemala City garbage dump. Wheeler also co-produced The People and the Olive, a 2012 documentary about the daily struggles of Palestinian olive farmers in the occupied West Bank. Wheeler lives in Traverse City, Michigan, with his wife Sarah and children, Nina and Leo. He has a BA from the University of Michigan (Residential College) and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction writing from Goucher College.

Jamie (Jay) Barber, University at Buffalo

Jay Barber is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo.? She is a faculty member in English department and directs the Journalism Certificate Program.? Professor Barber has a particular interest in science journalism and her current research explores the intersection of creative writing and science.? She recently spent six months in Bangalore, India on a Fulbright-Nehru fellowship facilitating a workshop in which students integrated their knowledge about carbon into creative writing projects. In the Spring of 2025, Professor Barber will begin teaching a class titled “Community Reporting” that will connect student journalists with local media outlets. ??

Jenny Fischer, Colorado State University

Jenny has more than 20 years of experience as a communications professional under her belt, with experience including publication production and management, digital marketing strategy, and an 8-year stint as design and editorial adviser for Rocky Mountain Student Media Corp.

Jenny currently serves as co-director of the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project, a partnership between academic departments at CSU, local media outlets and nonprofit organizations. The DJP aims to encourage understanding of different perspectives and to spark productive conversations about our shared issues as citizens of Northern Colorado.

The Journalism & Media Communication department offers a corresponding class Jenny has developed and teaches. The fall 2024 semester includes a statewide partnership with Voter Voices 2024, for which DJP students have been charged with producing stories about the concerns young voters have about ballot measures, candidates and community issues.

A proud Ram with a BFA in Graphic Design from CSU, Jenny also has an MS in Journalism Innovation from Syracuse University. She is currently combining these academic experiences in her role as Instructor for the Journalism and Media Communication department at CSU.

Jenny Glick, Loyola University Maryland

Jenny Glick is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication and Media at Loyola University Maryland. Prof. Glick oversees the student Greyhound newspaper as well as teaches Greyhound News, News Reporting and Writing, Media Writing and Radio Storytelling. She is an award-winning veteran radio and television reporter who has worked in the Chicago, San Francisco and Baltimore markets. She continues to fill- in anchor at WTOP Radio in Washington, DC. She is thrilled to be working on this collaborative opportunity with the Center for Community News.

John Murphy, Eastern Connecticut State University

John is an award-winning radio veteran, media educator, and community activist with a history of radio station management and networking—including international radio collaborations and travel with students in Nicaragua, Vancouver/BC, Ireland, and Senegal. John produces the WILI Radio/YouTube series On the Homefront (750 shows over 22 years), and he writes a media/arts column in Neighbors, a regional newspaper. For 40 years John has been a faculty member in Communications/Film/Theatre at Eastern Connecticut State University, receiving a State of Connecticut General Assembly Citation Award and a Wavy Gravy Basic Human Needs Award for service to the arts and local communities.

John-Erik Koslosky, Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania

John-Erik Koslosky is an assistant professor of journalism and student news media advisor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his shift into academia, he spent two decades in the news business as a reporter and editor at newspapers and websites. His local newspaper journalism work over the years won multiple awards for investigative reporting, news beat coverage, enterprise reporting and business/consumer reporting. At Commonwealth U of PA, he oversees the journalism program delivered across four campuses in Northeastern and North-central Pennsylvania. Since coming into the university's tenure track, he has redesigned Commonwealth's journalism program to center democracy in students' study and promote responsible accountability journalism and compelling fact-based storytelling. He's excited to expand possibilities for his students and strengthen partnerships with local media to better serve our communities' informational needs.

He is also completing work on his doctoral degree in mass communications at Penn State University. His research explores the influence of economic factors such as ownership, profit orientation and newsroom union representation on the production of accountability journalism.

Julie Serkosky, University of Connecticut

Julie A. Serkosky worked in the Journal Inquirer newsroom for 22 years covering local and Connecticut politics, town councils, boards of education and police and fire. She rose through the ranks as a reporter and local news editor to become the newspaper’s state editor, handling copy covering state laws and state lawmakers, including the resignation of former Gov. John G. Rowland.

She began teaching part-time in 1998 and full-time in 2014 at the University of Connecticut, where she specializes in multimedia journalism, multiplatform editing, newswriting, ethics and history. In 2020 she was promoted from assistant professor-in-residence to associate professor-in-residence.

She is a member of the Connecticut Student Journalism Collaborative, which in 2024 through its CT Community News site produced a package on the state’s new minimum wage. The stories were published in Connecticut and in the region.

She has been a Scripps Howard Entrepreneurship Institute fellow as well as a fellow at the Reynolds Business Week at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Arizona. Her interests include business reporting, entrepreneurial journalism and music journalism focusing on the Grateful Dead and the 1960s San Francisco scene.

Kate Farrish, Central Connecticut State University

Kate Farrish is an assistant professor of journalism at Central Connecticut State University, where she teaches newswriting and editing. She also spent 23 years at the Hartford Courant, where she was a higher education writer, bureau chief and city editor, and she taught newswriting at the University of Connecticut Journalism Department for 10 years. She is a graduate of the UConn Journalism Department and earned a master’s degree in digital communications from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She is president of the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government (CFOG) and serves on the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission.

Kate Roberts Edenborg, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Kate Roberts Edenborg, Ph.D. is a professor and the program director for the professional communication and emerging media degree at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She teaches journalism and media courses and also mentors students. For the past five years, Edenborg has pursued grants that allow her pay students to intern for non-community news outlets and collaborates with community members. She has worked at a variety of newspapers and publications in Wisconsin and Minnesota.?

Marion Callahan, Delaware Valley University

Marion Callahan is a career journalist, visual storyteller, and assistant professor of media at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She teaches news reporting, social media, public relations, video production and podcasting. She is passionate about exploring innovations in community news coverage through social media and other multimedia platforms. Marion launched her career in print journalism at the Miami Herald and went on to work at The Charlotte Observer, The Morning Call, European Stars & Stripes, and USA Today Network news organizations in Pennsylvania. While she has covered conflicts across the globe, she spent much of her career diving into local news issues, reporting on the opioid epidemic, housing shortages and other major news topics in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

In academia, she works to grow collaborations on campus and in the community and continues to build more opportunities for her students’ innovative storytelling.

Marsha Ducey, SUNY Brockport

Marsha Ducey is a professor at SUNY Brockport in New York and is an advisor with Society of Professional Journalists. Her research interests include gender representations in media, journalism education, and media law.

Matt Loveless, Washington State University

Matt Loveless is a scholarly assistant professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.

In his 6th year with WSU’s journalism and media production department, Matt focuses on broadcast storytelling & advises the production of a daily student newscast, which receives recognition regionally and nationally from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Society of Professional Journalists, and RTDNA. Students in his courses get practical experience covering community stories on a daily basis, so it’s not surprise they have a habit of finding immediate industry success, securing job as news and sports reporters, producers, and anchors at markets all over the country.

Matt is a longtime sports and news anchor himself, skills he now uses as emcee and public address announcer for WSU sports and events. Matt also does work with the local public media, Northwest Public Broadcasting, producing and hosting election content. That has ranged from public forums, candidate debates, to results shows and podcasts. This is a valuable connection, as he is able connect journalism students with a nearby professional news organization to pitch and create content for these programs.

Nancy Cheever, California State University, Dominguez Hills

Nancy A. Cheever, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communications and the Journalism Program Coordinator at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she was awarded the Presidential Outstanding Professor Award and the Faculty Innovation and Leadership Award. A former newspaper and magazine reporter and editor, she brings her industry knowledge to classes in news writing and reporting, news and media literacy, and data journalism. She has a doctorate in media psychology, and her research has been featured on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, America Inside Out with Katie Couric, and Panorama on BBC America.

Nico Colombant, University of Nevada, Reno

Nico Colombant, a Senior Lecturer of Digital Media and Cross-Cultural Reporting at the University of Nevada, Reno, coordinates the Our Town Reno hyperlocal multimedia community collective social media and journalism hybrid initiative, with student reporting, which focuses on residents struggling with rising costs, green initiatives, volunteers doing good, mutual aid, citizen concerns, investigations on local abuses of power, the treatment of the unhoused and the disappearance of public space.

The initiative partners with local media and pushes its own regular daily content onto social media so that student reporting can be seen, heard, read and discussed, with 24k followers on Instagram, 14k on Facebook, and weekly TikTok videos, some of them getting hundreds of thousands of views.? Our Town Reno holds a yearly free community event with the publication of a zine and the showing of original videos, including occasionally a new full length documentary.

?zgür Akgün, SUNY Old Westbury

Dr. ?zgür Akgün is an assistant professor in the American Studies/Media and Communication Department at SUNY Old Westbury. He managed the university's Media Innovation Center and OWTV Studios between Fall 2018 and Spring 2024. Currently, he coordinates the MIC internship program and teaches video and television production courses. Dr. Akgün holds a Ph.D. from Istanbul University, an MFA in intermedia from the University of Maine, and an MBA from the University of Texas-Pan American. Prior to his academic career, he worked in various positions in the advertising industry and worked with Istanbul University to develop their television studios and photography and videography divisions. His research interests include new forms of documentary storytelling, socially engaged art, activism, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Dr. Akgün’s work is driven by a commitment to social justice, exploring issues through innovative and participatory media projects.

Pallavi Guha, Towson University

Dr. Pallavi Guha is an Associate professor of journalism at Towson University and the author of Hear #Metoo in India: News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism, published by Rutgers University Press. Her book has been positively reviewed in press and is available in 860 libraries worldwide. Her research includes anti-rape and sexual harassment activism on mass media and social media platforms, gender roles in the electoral campaign, and social media. She has been recognized with several awards and grants highlighting distinguished academic excellence and innovative research in journalism. In 2022, Dr. Guha contributed as a research stakeholder of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse, an initiative of President Biden, in the National Plan on Violence Against Women. Dr. Guha’s career spans two decades of being a journalist, journalism researcher, and educator. She has a Ph.D. in journalism and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. Prior to academia, Dr. Guha worked for working for leading media organizations, including BBC News and The Times of India, and had the distinct opportunity as a journalist to cover Indian, UK, and US elections as a journalist. Dr. Guha is listed as an academic expert on media, politics, and gender, including the safety of journalists and WMC.

Paul Arras, SUNY Cortland

Paul Arras teaches journalism and media history in the Communication and Media Studies Department at SUNY Cortland. After a brief stint in sports webcasting in the early days of internet video, Paul received a Ph.D. in history from Syracuse University. His research focuses on the relationship between media narratives and conceptions of community and, in his journalism classes, Paul’s students are tasked with reporting stories that bring them into the wider local community beyond the edge of campus.

Peter W. Brusoe, SUNY Delhi

Dr. Peter W. Brusoe is an Assistant Professors of Political Science and Economics at SUNY Delhi. At Delhi, Dr. Brusoe teaches American Government, Public Policy, Environmental Economics, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Campaigns and Elections. His research interests include campaign finance, political science pedagogy, and political engagement. Brusoe was the coauthor of the chapter on Campaign Finance for the Oxford Handbook of New York State Politics, The Election Law Journal, and the Journal of Political Science Education. Previous to teaching at SUNY Delhi, Dr. Brusoe was a Campaign Finance and Lobbying Data Analyst for Bloomberg, and a research analyst at the Campaign Finance Institute. Dr. Brusoe earned his doctorate in political science at American University in Washington, DC, his Master’s from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, and graduated with his Bachelors in History and Political Science summa cum laude from the University at Albany.

Rick Brunson, University of Central Florida

Rick Brunson is senior instructor of journalism at the University of Central Florida’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media. For more than two decades he has taught courses in digital, print and broadcast journalism. His RTV 3301 Electronic Journalism I class is a collaborative partnership course with Central Florida Public Media (WMFE 90.7 News), Central Florida’s NPR News affiliate. Students in the class produce a project called “Sounds of Central Florida,’’ which sheds light on people and issues in Central Florida. In its three years of existence, the project has garnered numerous statewide journalism awards for excellence in reporting from both the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine State Awards and the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists’ College Awards program. In 2022, Brunson and his students in the class also received the national Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Digital Reporting for “The Moore Project,’’ a collaborative partnership with WUCF-TV that spotlighted the quest for racial justice in Central Florida.

Scott Brinton, Hofstra University

Scott Brinton, a Hofstra journalism professor since 2009, co-directs the university's Summer High School Journalism Institute, which recruits students from nearby communities of color to study journalism at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, and he edits and advises the award-winning Long Island Advocate, the LHSC’s online multimedia publication showcasing the best student work from their classes and internships. Outside of Hofstra, he was executive editor of Herald Community Newspapers, one of New York’s largest community media groups. At the Herald, Brinton published more than 4,000 articles and completed 25 major investigations.

Brinton's work has also appeared in or on Newsday, The New York Times, WABC "Eyewitness News," CBS News, MSNBC, the Oprah Winfrey Network, Long Beach Magazine, The Riverdale Press, Jewish Star, Nickelodeon and Google’s Year in Search 2020, as well as a Google public service announcement, an AT&T national advertising campaign and the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Additionally, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria for two years, teaching at a high school and university, developing curricula and workshops, building an English language library, and writing an 18,000-word cultural guide, “Bulgaria: Land of Yogurt and Honey," for the corps.

Serena Garcia, Edward Waters University

Serena Garcia has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor, magazine editor, public relations practitioner, communications strategist, community outreach liaison, community journalism coach, and communications professor. Her background includes serving in the U.S. Army Reserves and AmeriCorps. Garcia is the recipient of the 2016 Southern Regional Press Institute’s Louis R. Lautier Award for Communications Career Achievement. She completed her communications undergraduate and graduate studies at Savannah State University and Fort Hays State University, respectively.

Sheri Quinn, Utah State University

Sheri Quinn is news director at Utah Public Radio.? She founded the first science radio show in Utah in 1999 and has been reporting local, national and international stories ever since. After a stint as news director at Mendocino Public Broadcasting on northern California's Lost Coast, she landed back at UPR in 2021 mentoring a team of Utah State University reporting interns with an emphasis on science and environment reporting.?

Stephania Davis, Connecticut State Community College Manchester

Stephania Davis is chairperson of the Communication department at CT State Community College Manchester and teaches journalism, public speaking and non-fiction Creative Writing. She also acts as faculty advisor for the Manchester student news website, ICE News, and the convergence project of student news, radio and TV projects, ICE Media. She is a founding member of the Connecticut Student Journalism Collaborative. She has been at Manchester since 2004, after leaving her first career as a newspaper reporter, where she did stints at several papers across the country, including The Hartford Courant, The Chicago Tribune, The Des Moines Register and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. When she isn’t teaching she enjoys reading, writing, travel and spending time with her family, especially her two nieces and two nephews.

Tanya Ott, Mercer University

Before joining the faculty at Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, Tanya Ott was an award-winning reporter, anchor, editor and news manager at public radio stations in Florida, Colorado, Alabama and Georgia. Her stories aired on NPR, Marketplace, The Pulse, BBC, Deutsche Welle, National Native News, Voice of America, and elsewhere. Tanya has trained hundreds of public media journalists and taught journalism at the University of Florida, University of Alabama, and University of Alabama at Birmingham. At Mercer, she teaches newswriting, podcasting, media entrepreneurship, and data journalism. She’s also the faculty advisor for the award-winning Mercer Cluster student newspaper. Tanya hosts a business and technology podcast for Deloitte and was on teams that made podcasts for Allrecipes, Virginia Tourism Corporation, the U.S. Civil Rights Trail and others. Her academic research centers on issues of newsroom diversity.

Tom Mullen, University of Richmond

Tom Mullen is the director of public affairs journalism at the University of Richmond. He teaches a wide range of courses and directs the Richmond bureau of the Capital News Service, through which students cover the Virginia General Assembly for news outlets across the state. He began his career in journalism by walking into the newsroom at the Kingsport Times-News when he was 19 and refusing to leave until he was compelled to graduate from college. Mullen worked as a reporter, copy editor, assignment editor and night editor at daily and weekly newspapers in Tennessee and Virginia for more than 20 years, covering general assignment, features, education, police and government. One of his longest assignments was covering religion for The Richmond News Leader, which required travel nationwide to follow trends and investigate national stories.

In addition to teaching, Mullen is an ordained Roman Catholic deacon and is the university’s Catholic chaplain.

A native of New York City, Mullen holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from East Tennessee State University and a master's degree in media management from Virginia Commonwealth University. Before moving to the classroom full-time, he was an adjunct instructor at VCU and Richmond.

Valerie Whitney, Bethune-Cookman

Valerie Whitney is the professor of practice at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach. Whitney worked as a newspaper reporter for more than two decades, first at the Lakeland Ledger and then at the Daytona Beach News Journal before moving to the classroom in 2012. She holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland in College Park and a history degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Besides her current role as an instructor, she also is adviser to both the student newspaper and feature magazine.

She is a member of several journalsim organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Central Florida Association of Black Journalists, the Ida B. Wells Society and past members of College Media Advisors.

Wafa Unus, Fitchburg State University

Dr. Wafa Unus is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts, where she also advises the student-run newspaper, The Point. She is the author of "A Newsman in the Nixon White House: The Enduring Conflict between Journalistic Truth and Presidential Image," a critical examination of the interplay between journalism and presidential image-making. Her broader research interests include science reporting, media ethics, the interplay between minority populations and the press, and local journalism.

At Fitchburg State, Dr. Unus has been instrumental in creating a vibrant news culture, leading the development of a Political Journalism minor and a collaborative newsroom initiative aimed at addressing local news gaps. Her work enriches academic discourse and actively engages with the community, fostering stronger connections between local journalism and civic participation.

William Sites, Lincoln University (Missouri)

William K. Sites is an associate professor of journalism at Lincoln University (Missouri) focusing on news reporting and writing, MMJ, media law, and drone journalism. He spent 20 years working in all facets of print and digital media, including founding successful community newspapers and online news sites before joining the staff of Lincoln University in 2014.

Sites attended journalism school at the University of North Alabama. After graduation, Sites worked as a reporter, photojournalist, and editor at newspapers in Missouri and Idaho, including managing the U.S. Army’s post newspaper at Fort Leonard Wood.

His love for hyperlocal journalism led to the founding of several community newspapers and websites. When online classified advertising sites began to cannibalize local print ad revenue, Sites did what any rational journalist would do. He moved to Reno, where he attended grad school at the University of Nevada. While at UNR, Sites taught undergrad journalism classes. This began his love for teaching. After graduation, Sites returned to his community newspaper business in Missouri. A few years later, he learned about an open position at nearby Lincoln University, a historically black college and university.

In his decade at LU, Sites moved the campus newspaper from print to digital, while also taking the ownership of the newspaper away from the administration and into the hands of the students. In 2018, he began the first HBCU drone journalism program in the nation. Also in 2018, he was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education, the state’s highest honor for public college teachers.

Yanick Rice Lamb, Howard University

Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb is an independent journalist, author, professor and former chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University, where she runs HUNewsService.com and teaches reporting, editing, and health and science writing.

Dr. Rice Lamb is also co-founder of the health website FierceforBlackWomen.com. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of Heart & Soul and BET Weekend magazines; an editor at the N.Y. Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Child and Essence magazines; a reporter at the Toledo Blade; and a contributing editor for Emerge: Black America’s Newsmagazine.

She specializes in environmental health, climate change and social issues. The Center for Public Integrity and Belt Magazine co-published her award-winning three-part series, “Unintended Consequences: The Rubber Industry’s Toxic Legacy in Akron,” with the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

She is currently writing In My Backyard: How Pollution and Climate Change Are Making Black America Sick to Death for the Amistad division of HarperCollins. She is also a contributor to We Refuse to Be Silent: Women’s Voices for Justice for Black Men and co-author of Born to Win: The Authorized Biography of Althea Gibson and the bid whist book Rise & Fly.

Dr. Rice Lamb, who has a son and grandson, loves working with young people and recently celebrated her 20th anniversary at the Mecca.

Zainul Abedin, Mississippi Valley State University

Zainul Abedin, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mass Communication, Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU). With about 30 years of the newsroom and teaching experiences, Abedin teaches undergrad and grad courses, which include Basic News Reporting and Writing, Print Media, Online Media, Communication Theories, Media Ownership and Management.

Abedin’s previous works include Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) and UNICEF-USA.

Abedin works with some MVSU departmental and varsity committees, such as MVSU Senate, and Up From A Cotton Patch Project.

Abedin’s research interests include innovative journalism, international communication, race relations, disparities among races, gender, class, and faiths. He also holds degrees of MSW (US), MS in Development Studies (The Netherlands), MA in Journalism (Bangladesh). Abedin participated in varied courses and study abroad programs in Canada, Britain, Germany, and France. Abedin has publications in research journals, such as International Communication Research Journal (2023), The Journal of Applied Business and Economics (JABE, 2019), Newspaper Research Journal (2017), International Journal of Arts and Humanities (2016), Computer in Human Behavior (2014). Abedin has also book chapters, which include social media implications (2021). Research papers presented at different conferences –AEJMC, NCA, AJHA, and Empire, Power, Identity, and Conflict (EPIC).