Faculty and staff briefs

Matthew Nyquist Regina Cassell Sam finch tracy horacek Andrew anglin Maria Stover kristen grimmer

Faculty & staff briefs

story by Hayden Kalp photos by Perla Soto

Maria Stover, Professor & Chair

Stover took a sabbatical during fall 2021, to conduct research projects, one of which is for View - The Journal of European Television History & Culture. Stover’s research is over the longest-running parody show in Bulgaria. Stover and colleague Kristen Grimmer are working to add an extended introduction to an autobiography published by long-time Topeka columnist, Dick Snider. Stover’s sabbatical allowed her to develop presentations for one national and two international conferences.

Regina Cassell, Senior Lecturer & Director of Student Media

Cassell has been accepted into two summer programs at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. She will complete Poynter’s Diversity Across the Curriculum and Teachapalooza: Front-Edge Teaching Tools for College Educators program in early June. In March, Cassell took six undergraduate students to the Spring national conference for the Associated Collegiate Press in Long Beach, California.

Matthew Nyquist, Assistant Professor

Nyqust has kept busy throughout the year, working on multiple film projects on top of his usual teaching. Nyquist has recently written, directed and shot a short documentary about the world class musicians that play in Topeka each summer. The project was shown at both Sundance Film Festival and was briefly shown on PBS. Currently, Nyquist is in the early stages of writing and directing a narrative feature film.

Kristen Grimmer, Assistant Professor

Grimmer’s latest research focuses on the effect the media portrayal of rape and sexual assault associated with high profile cases has on college-aged men and women. She will conduct individual interviews to investigate how the media messages have impacted her subjects, including what her subjects have learned from both the victims and perpetrators.

Tracy Horacek, Office Coordinator

Horacek was promoted by the College of Arts and Sciences. Horacek now works with a team of coordinators within the college to fill office vacancies, train administrative assistants and find ways to streamline regular office tasks. She is excited to work in the position, which is completely new to Washburn.

Andrew Anglin, Assistant Professor

Anglin organized the return of the mass media tailgates this past fall. He also led 17 students on the trip to Walt Disney World over spring break. Anglin is also excited to announce that mass media students won 15 ADDY awards from the Topeka Advertising Federation for work that was completed in his courses.

Sam Finch, Assistant Professor

Finch began working toward a Master of Fine Arts degree at University of Missouri - Kansas City in the Fall of 2021. Finch also plans to teach a special topics summer course, Exploring Iconic Film Directors.

Patrick Early, Adjunct Professor

Early continued to oversee and coordinate COVID-19 updates for Washburn. Along with hiring recent graduate Ellie Walker to the department, he plans to double the size of Washburn’s digital signage on campus.

Tim Hrenchir, Adjunct Professor

Hrenchir continues to work as a trending news reporter for The Topeka CapitalJournal and CJOnline, and he was elected to a one-year term as president of the Shawnee County Historical Society in December. His wife, Catheryn (Ready) Hrenchir, 1992, joined him at the paper as a entertainment writer, copy editor and coach.