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THIS FALL, THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA prepared for the largest undergraduate entering class since 1965. It's also the most diverse on record, with the College of Liberal Arts welcoming around 4,000 new students. We welcomed back more than 900 majors and just fewer than 80 graduate students to the Hubbard School, serving the most students ever in our School’s history.
We capped off the 2023-2024 academic year with a new student excellence showcase and graduation recognition event on May 10, 2024 (see page 12). Students and clubs received award recognition for their excellence in winning scholastic journalism, public relations, advertising and marketing awards. We also took time to honor graduating seniors and scholarship awardees for their academic excellence.
Our faculty and staff continue to generate new ideas to develop and support student success. This past summer faculty developed our first-ever MN+Folio creative portfolio program to support students’ readiness to thrive as creative professionals (see page 27). And, the School continues to pilot new methods and platforms for supporting student journalism, including the Hubbard Reporting Experience, Report for Minnesota, and NextGen TV programs.
Our professional master’s program received an investment of nearly $580,000 in the form of a pilot grant and forgivable loan from the Office of Distributed Learning to expand the reach and double the size of the program over the next three years. As part of the project, the Professional M.A. program in Strategic Communication will relaunch its marketing materials and modernize its outreach and recruitment efforts. While the program continues to host community events in the fall and spring, it also benefits from an updated curriculum, including new courses on communication management and leadership, crisis communication and ethics, and data analytics and AI considerations. The goal of the new curriculum is to support multiple student cohorts entering the professional program each
year. The program, now in its 20th year, is led by Academic Director Erich Sommerfeldt and is receiving a site visit from the national Public Relations Society of America certification program this year. He and Outreach Director Scott Meyer have been working to enhance the quality and impact of this program, which continues to support and train the next generation of public relations, advertising, and marketing professional leaders. For more information or to apply to the program, visit our website.
Our faculty and staff continue to generate new ideas to develop and support student success.
We also continue to build our undergraduate programs, experiences, and student clubs. We are pleased to welcome 11 new industry inclusion fellows (see page 3) who are strengthening student and faculty industry-relevant curricula and collaborations. Mukhtar Ibrahim (B.A. ’11) has joined the School as our Charnley Project professor supporting student development and classwork in journalism and media entrepreneurship. Shayla Thiel-Stern and Erik Kvalseth returned to the faculty in full-time positions to support our advanced strategic campaigns and creative advertising strategy curriculum.
Fall 2025 begins the school’s effort in strategic planning for our accreditation self-study this year. As we engage with alumni and industry leaders, we continue to imagine the ways changes in technology, artificial intelligence, and data analytics will influence the innovative plans for journalism, media, and strategic communication education in the years ahead. These innovations are possible due to the deep and sustained support we receive from our alumni and friends.
Thank you for your continued engagement and support.
All my best,
Elisia L. Cohen, Ph.D. Director and Cowles Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication
PHOTO BY PATRICK O'LEARY
SPRING FORUM FEATURES WHITE HOUSE ALUM
The Professional Master’s in Strategic Communication program held its Spring Forum on March 21, 2024, at McNamara Alumni Center. Nearly 80 program alums and faculty members attended to hear keynote speaker Kate Bedingfield and her speech, “Cutting Through the Chaos: Strategic Communications from the Campaign Trail to the White House.” Bedingfield is a strategic consultant offering advice to clients on matters of communications and government affairs. She also currently works as an on-air political commentator for CNN. Bedingfield has 20 years of experience in both political and corporate strategic communications and at the highest levels of government. She most recently served two years as White House communications director under President Biden. Prior to that, she served as deputy campaign manager and communications director on the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign.
BROADCASTERS HALL OF FAME
Another generation of Hubbards were officially inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame in October. Kari Hubbard-Rominski, executive director of Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation and the executive vice president of community affairs for Hubbard Broadcasting; Stan E. Hubbard, president and CEO of Hubbard Media; Ginny Hubbard, the chairwoman of Hubbard Radio; and Robert W. Hubbard, the president of Hubbard Television, were announced as part of the hall’s 2024 class of inductees. The Hubbard siblings join both their father, Stanley S. Hubbard, and grandfather, Stanley E. Hubbard, in the hall. The two patriarchs were charter inductees into the Hall of Fame in 2001.
CASE STUDY FEATURES JOURNALISM COURSES
The Center for Community News at the University of Vermont featured the Hubbard School’s community journalism course and off-site practicums in a case study called “University of Minnesota Creates Opportunities for Students to Report on Campus and Beyond.” Both programs were spearheaded by senior lecturer and Charnley Professor of Journalism Gayle (G.G.) Golden. The School’s Field-based Practicum is more than 20 years strong, and teaches advanced reporting skills through hands-on experience, professional oversight, and thoughtful discussions with working journalists. The Brovald-Sim Community Journalism Course takes place every spring. Students focus on covering an underrepresented community in
and around the University of Minnesota and highlight stories on the course’s own website, AccessU. Over the summer, the Center for Community News also named Golden a Faculty Champion.
NEW ROLES & NEW FACES
Rich McCracken, who has been with the School for three years teaching strategic communication, recently accepted the advisor role for Backpack, the student-run communication agency. Both Erik Kvalseth and Shayla Thiel-Stern, who have been long-time adjuncts with the School, accepted full-time roles in strategic communication. The School also hired three postdoctoral students. Dongquing Xu, from the University of Miami, joins as a postdoc in strategic communication. Meagan Doll, from the University of Washington, and Suhwoo Ahn, from Michigan State University, join the Minnesota Journalism Center.
SIX FACULTY PROMOTIONS
Following the recommendation of the faculty in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Liberal Arts, its Dean and the Provost, the University of Minnesota Regents voted to promote four Hubbard School faculty members. Benjamin Toff was promoted to associate professor with tenure; Erich Sommerfeldt and Emily Vraga were promoted to full professor; and Diane Cormany was promoted to teaching associate professor. The vote was ratified on May 9, 2024, and the promotions took effect July 1, 2024. Both Regina McCombs and Sara Quinn were promoted by the CLA dean to Senior Lecturer and Senior Fellow beginning Aug. 26, 2024.
Director Elisia Cohen, Kate Bedingfield, and Professional MA
Academic Director Erich Sommerfeldt
5TH ANNUAL NORTHERN EXPOSURE CONFERENCE
More than 100 professionals and students from across the region attended the annual Northern Exposure visual journalism conference in April. Hosted by the School in Murphy Hall and led by Senior Fellow Regina McCombs, the conference aims to educate and inspire attendees with keynote speakers, breakout sessions, vendor booths and portfolio review sessions. The weekend’s keynote speakers included Carol Guzy, Pulitzer-winning journalist; Tara Pixley, visual journalist and assistant professor, Temple University; and Kent Nishimura, Washington D.C.-based journalist. Other speakers included McKenna Ewen (B.A. ’09) from CNN, Dymanh Chhoun (B.A. ’11) from Sahan Journal, Jaida Grey Eagle, Rich Tsong-Taatarii and others. For more information, visit northernexposuremn.org.
11 FELLOWS JOIN THE FACULTY
The Hubbard School welcomed the Fall 2024 class of distinguished adjunct fellows who support new curriculum development and community outreach by working on issues related to strategic communication and journalism. The fellows, all professionals working in the industry, engage with students across a range of courses throughout the semester, offering expertise in many areas from media ethics and radio production to data journalism and advertising strategy. These fellows enhance the School’s teaching and outreach capacities and its ability to mentor and recruit diverse undergraduate and graduate students.
“For seven years our adjunct fellows have been a huge addition to our teaching staff, all offering a welcome perspective to each class with which they spend time,” said Director Elisia Cohen. “We feel fortunate that
these professionals are eager to engage with students several days throughout the semester, not only enhancing undergraduate learning opportunities in a particular course, but offering career guidance as well.”
Fall semester fellows include: Daniel Bergin, executive producer, TPT-Twin Cities PBS; Sheletta Brundidge, radio and podcast host, entrepreneur, author, columnist; Carlos Gonzalez, staff photographer, Star Tribune; Jerry Holt, staff photographer, Star Tribune; Jada Jesberg, associate producer, broadhead; Maria Pazos, director of brand management, Target; Marsha Pitts-Phillips, founder, MRPP & Associates Communications LLC; Anjula Razdan, senior director, digital, Experience Life; Nikhil Sonnad, data journalist; Sarah Thamer, senior reporter, MPR; and Heidi Wigdahl, multimedia journalist, KARE-11.
KAREN HOLMEN HUBBARD (1936-2024)
KAREN HUBBARD OF ST. MARY’S POINT, MINN., passed away peacefully on August 12, 2024, while comforted by the love of her husband of 65 years, Stanley S. Hubbard. Karen was born in St. Paul on Nov. 7, 1936. Her father was a doctor specializing in eye, ear, nose and throat and she worked in his office and also volunteered as a candy striper at Gillette Children’s Hospital in the summers when she wasn’t racing sailboats on White Bear Lake. In 1954, Karen graduated from Central High School in St. Paul then went to Gustavus Adolphus College where she earned a degree in education, with a special interest in art and English, in 1958. After college, Karen taught both elementary school art and English in Roseville until she married Stanley S. Hubbard in 1959.
Karen was active in her communities throughout her life of nearly 88 years. With a gubernatorial appointment, she served on the Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission where she helped shape policy for the St. Croix River after it was designated a National Scenic Waterway. Karen was instrumental, along with Stanley and a few generous neighbors, in establishing and building the Lower St. Croix Valley Youth Center in 1968 which is still an operating ice arena near their home in St. Mary’s Point. Karen also served as a director on many boards, including the Minnesota Orchestra and Children’s Home Society.
After starting their family, Karen continued her active support of her husband Stanley as he followed in his dad’s footsteps to help to grow the television and radio businesses while also pioneering satellite news gathering and direct to home digital satellite service.
To quote Stanley, “Everything we accomplished professionally could not have been possible without Karen’s enthusiastic willingness to be my partner in all that we did. At every turn, she offered her best ideas, support and when necessary, challenged my thinking.”
PHOTO BY DAVE LABELLE
The Hubbard family at the School's Centennial Gala.
REMEMBERING PROFESSOR DANIEL WACKMAN
Professor Wackman died May 13, 2024.
BY MARCO YZER, PROFESSOR
Dan was a teacher, a colleague, a mentor, and a friend to an extraordinarily large number of people in the Hubbard School and beyond. The news of his passing has led to an outpouring of sympathy and shared memories from so many people who have had the good fortune to learn from Dan at some point in his 45-year tenure at the Hubbard School, which included six years as the School’s director. Reading through the many homages to Dan expressed in emails within the Hubbard School, in posts on various social media, and in text conversations with other people who knew him, I saw a clear theme emerge; regardless of whether we were Dan’s students, graduate advisees, staff colleagues, or faculty colleagues, we felt that he genuinely cared about us as individual persons.
Dan was an accomplished, widely cited scholar on family communication and political communication. Equally important is his scholarly impact through the excellent and prolific work of the students that he has trained, many of whom are now highly influential communication scholars themselves. There is more to impact than academic performance metrics that focus on publications and grants, however. The primary reason for doing research is to find answers to important questions that can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. Dan never lost sight of this. He always
maintained a people focus, both in how he approached his research and teaching and particularly in how he engaged with the people around him. Dan expected rigorous work from his students and his colleagues, yet did so with their flourishing and well-being as his ultimate goal.
My own experiences are very similar. I moved into the office next to Dan’s in January of 2004 and we were office neighbors for the next 12 years until Dan’s retirement. During those years I came to know Dan as a truly authentic, what-you-see-is-what-you-get person. This meant that with Dan you knew exactly where you stood. He often would treat policies as friendly suggestions rather than rules of law, which was refreshing and often wildly entertaining during faculty meetings and thesis and dissertation defenses. His authenticity also meant that when he said he cared about you, he meant it. Dan’s kindness and concern for others is what stands out most to me as his most meaningful and lasting impact. His door was always open when I needed a sounding board. I hope he knew how critically important his empathy was for helping me get through difficult times in my life.
Many people can talk, but few can truly listen. Dan listened. He could launch into a long narrative on his latest round of golf, but while he was at it he would look at you and gauge how you were doing. During faculty meetings he made sure we thanked those who deserved to be thanked. He was a role model when it comes to making job candidates feel welcome during job talks.
I leave you with reflections from three of Dan’s former students and colleagues who generously shared their memories of working with him: Dhavan Shah (Ph.D. ’99, advisor Dan Wackman), who is the Jack M. McLeod Professor of Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jiyoung Han (Ph.D. ’15, advisor Dan Wackman), who is Ewon Assistant Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology; and Gayle Golden (faculty colleague of Dan Wackman from 1998 until Dan’s retirement), who is a Senior Lecturer and Charnley Professor at the University of Minnesota.
Dhavan Shah wrote: “Dan was caring, charming, and demanding in equal measures—the perfect academic parent. Always thoughtful and incisive, using every
His authenticity also meant that when he said he cared about you, he meant it. Dan’s kindness and concern for others is what stands out most to me as his most meaningful and lasting impact. His door was always open when I needed a sounding board. I hope he knew how critically important his empathy was for helping me get through difficult times in my life.
meeting as an opportunity to teach, coach, mentor, or otherwise impart wisdom, often through a personal story about his family or some hard-learned life lesson. He was a role model of devotion to his students, dedication to careful research, and an abiding love for his wife, kids, and grandkids— and how to do all three tirelessly.”
Jiyoung Han similarly wrote: “I was initially intimidated by Dr. Wackman. He had a penetrating gaze that seemed to see through me. However, as our meetings continued over time, I became more familiar with his warm smile. Although he often said a blunt ‘no,’ it was never the end of the road. He taught me how to fix the problem, or at the very least provided a clear sense of what needed to be corrected. Dr. Wackman was the person I wanted to share my progress with, so I worked hard to achieve it.”
Golden expressed how fortunate we are to have learned lessons from Dan that have lifelong impact: “One of Dan’s big legacies involved the time and care he gave to the people he worked with. This included students, staff and faculty—no matter the rank of those people. In my earliest years at the school, when I was a newly hired instructional faculty, he and I worked together closely to develop the course profiles we still rely on to organize our curriculum. During that process, he treated me with deep respect as a colleague. It helped instill in me a confidence that I could make important and lasting contributions to the School. I know others were moved by his kindness and belief in them. This memory of him reminds me that achievements come and go, but what endures is how we treat others. Dan really lived by that principle.”
Dan Wackman will be terribly missed but is fondly remembered.
THE CENTERS
Minnesota Journalism Center
Strategic Communication Hub
Health Communication Research Center
Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics & Law
The Hubbard School turns to revitalizing and reinventing its centers and hubs.
COMPILED BY AMANDA FRETHEIM GATES ALL PHOTOS BY
ERICA LOEKS
In the last several years, particularly those post-lockdown, the Hubbard School met several strategic goals. Today’s students learn in a brand-new Media Hub in the basement of Murphy Hall. Faculty continue to work together to grow the curriculum to not only teach hands-on skills, including new offerings in social media management, but the context and ideas students need to be wellrounded employees and members of society. The School’s events and research opportunities balance out the academics, engaging not only students, but communities across the University and in the local industry.
“As director, I strive to continue to build excellence in scholarship and research, to adjust curricular offerings to keep up with changing times, to draw and recruit additional faculty, and to demonstrate a commitment to a school climate that treats individuals fairly, celebrating diverse and inclusive people and ideas,” said Director Elisia Cohen.
As leadership looks forward, the next initiative is broadening the use of endowments to support faculty research, education and outreach across all programs through new and reinvented institutes and centers. This goal helps strengthen the outreach mission of the School impacting undergraduate and graduate experiential learning, increasing resources for research collaboration between graduate students and faculty members, and also offers myriad opportunities to connect with the community, School alumni, industry leaders and more.
“We want to demonstrate to the world that thought leadership in journalism and mass communication education is occurring at the School through its research centers, educational projects, and engagement,” Cohen said.
Back row (left to right): Benjamin Toff, Jisu Huh, Scott Meyer and Erich Sommerfeldt
Center row (left to right): Rich McCracken, Amy O'Connor, Emily Vraga and Jane Kirtley
Front row (left to right)
Regina McCombs, Elisia Cohen, María Lén-Rios, and Gayle Golden
MINNESOTA JOURNALISM CENTER: NEW DIRECTOR, NEW GOALS
THE MINNESOTA JOURNALISM CENTER (MJC) WAS ESTABLISHED in 1979 through a gift from the late John Cowles, Sr., chairman of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company, and his wife, the late Elizabeth Bates Cowles. For decades, the MJC, under the direction of its faculty leaders, including Kathy Hanson, Nora Paul, Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, Gerald Kline and George Hage, has enriched the state of Minnesota as well as national and international journalism.
Over the years, the scope of the MJC has changed with the emergence of new technology and digital media to influence news production, but its mission continues to focus on research that will improve the practice of professional journalism and the industries and public served by it. In January 2011, the Institute for New Media Studies merged with the Minnesota Journalism Center.
2024-2025 EVENTS
Minnesota Journalism Center
Sept. 27
MJC Launch Event
Murphy Hall
Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics & Law
Oct. 7, 2024
Silha Lecture
Cowles Auditorium
Strategic Communication Hub
Oct. 24, 2024
Professional Master’s in Strategic Communication Fall Forum
McNamara Alumni Center
Health Communication Research Center
Spring 2025
Mental Health Communication Symposium
Coffman Memorial Union
But in 2024-2025, Hubbard School faculty and staff members are excited to boost the Center’s profile once again after taking time to engage in strategic planning.
The MJC has always been collaboratively managed by the journalism faculty and supports the School’s journalism research series, events, and outreach efforts.
During and post lockdown, the MJC was a collaborative venture, turning its resources to online programming, fellowships, journalism projects responsive to COVID-19 and civil unrest in Minneapolis.
Under the leadership of a new director, Associate Professor Benjamin Toff, the MJC will focus on supporting a more vibrant, equitable, and sustainable ecosystem for journalism in Minnesota through educational initiatives, outreach and engagement, and applied research. Toff, with the help of Senior Lecturer Gayle Golden (education) and Senior Fellow Regina McCombs (outreach), hopes to create opportunities for student journalists to gain hands-on experiences working in newsrooms and reporting in the field; establish and maintain support mechanisms to ensure a robust and diverse pipeline of future media professionals; and facilitate collaboration with researchers around fostering healthy, more sustainable, and more inclusive local news ecosystems across Minnesota.
The School advances its hands-on training through coursework, experiential learning and internship opportunities. Opportunities like Report for Minnesota, the Hubbard Reporting Experience, the Brovald-Sim Community Journalism course, and other internship and micro-internship offerings, all led by Hubbard School faculty members like Golden, McCombs, Senior Fellow Scott Libin, Lecturer Seth Richardson and others, are now at home under the MJC umbrella.
Since the founding of the MJC—and even before— the Hubbard School has been known for its community outreach, professional journalism training options, and other public events. According to Toff, these public-facing activities are necessary to not only facilitate the relationship-building needed to expand and support internship and job placement opportunities for students, but to also facilitate engagement between the School and the
Left to right: Gayle Golden, Regina McCombs and Benjamin Toff lead the MJC.
broader community journalism professionals in Minnesota and also make the local community outlets more visible to each other.
The MJC continues to have a research arm, with recent funding secured to support a focus on local news. Toff studies news audiences in the contemporary media environment. He is the leading expert on news avoidance, the subject of a co-authored book (2023), and previously led the most extensive, international study to date on trust in news as a fellow at the University of Oxford. His work grapples with both the political implications of the public’s growing disconnection from news and its impact on the sustainability of the industry. With this expertise, and through valuable partnerships around Minnesota, Toff hopes the MJC can serve as an “incubator and connector for specific applied journalism research projects that involve working directly with local and statewide news media.”
With the help of postdoctoral research assistants and
graduate students, Toff hopes to continue an ongoing project working with American Public Media and MPR News to examine the way they internally track diversity in their sourcing and to launch a new project around “Mapping Minnesota’s Local News and Information Ecosystem,” publishing an interactive, dynamic map of the local news ecosystem in Minnesota that is accompanied by a report on the state of local news in Minnesota, highlighting the breadth of local news outlets that have closed or changed owners in recent years, and broader changes in the ecosystem.
One of the first big plans for the MJC is taking the show on the road. Toff and others plan to travel the state throughout the 2024-25 academic year, hosting small listening events and meeting with local journalists, all with the goal of not only spreading the Center’s name, but also to discover more about Minnesota’s media landscape—where it’s strong and where it needs help.
The primary aim is to listen and learn, then return back to Murphy Hall and change that learning into outcomes.
NEW STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION HUB
THE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PROGRAM at the Hubbard School is dedicated to advancing the field and creating lasting, positive impact. In addition to the curriculum delivered to current students, the program engages many audiences, including alumni, the professional community, donors, and others. This engagement happens by sharing groundbreaking research, fostering student engagement with industry leaders, and supporting organizations like the Backpack Student Agency.
To help organize this work and formalize stakeholder engagement under one umbrella, the School plans to create a new entity (specific to its strategic communication program) with a dedicated mission, vision, and name. The new hub will advance its mission through education by
Left to right: Rich McCracken, Amy O'Connor, Jisu Huh, Erich Sommerfeldt and Scott Meyer guide the Strategic Communication Hub.
preparing students for career success through robust, unique, transformative experiences; through industry engagement, which sparks connections and cross-sector collaboration; and through research, by continuing to develop data-driven discoveries in advertising and public relations.
With an effort to create novel programming and industry engagement initiatives to inspire philanthropic and industry sponsored support, the hub will launch strategic planning in 2024-25 with a goal of naming two leads to support the work: one in advertising and one in public relations. The goal is to enhance the research profile in emerging data and strategic communication by bringing leading experts to Minnesota each year and building a brand reputation for the School in this area.
As the advisor and instructor for both the Backpack Student Agency and the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) course, Rich McCracken is working to expand student opportunities. New this year, Backpack weekly labs will focus on professional development and skill building with local industry experts. NSAC students will work on a campaign for AT&T, and strive to win the district competition for the fourth year in a row. With so many educational initiatives in play, McCracken can see how a new hub will benefit students. “It’s good to have supporting infrastructure around building skills and experience,” he said. “We’re investing our time and asking the community to invest their time to train these students.”
Associate Professor Amy O’Connor also supports a lot of her research with undergraduate students. Through her latest research studying corporate social responsibility on Minnesota’s Iron Range, O’Connor builds teams of research assistants through open job postings and through the Dean’s First-Year Research Program. The undergrads get paid, learn about Minnesota, and gain new skills that are transferable to future careers. “The strategic communication field is so big,” O’Connor said. “A hub brings us all under the same umbrella so the community can see the breadth of things we do.”
The hub is also offering a place for Assistant Professor Haseon Park and Teaching Assistant Professor Allison Steinke’s work on creating a branding curriculum at the Hubbard School. With donor support from alum Marty Brandt, Park and Steinke have spent two years researching, interviewing, and conducting focus groups to develop five core concepts of brand thinking.
“We’re in the process of laying the foundation for academic and industry consultancies, research, and instruction in branding and brand communication at the Hubbard School for years to come by producing academic articles, conference presentations, and a theoretical framework that we will be able to apply to establish brand believability as a key metric for brands and organizations worldwide,” Steinke said.
NEW HEALTH COMMUNICATION RESEARCH CENTER
THE SCHOOL HOPES TO ALSO DEVELOP NEW PROGRAMMING on health communication and media/ misinformation and health over the next three years. Led by Larson Endowed Professor Emily Vraga in
Emily Vraga is the Larson Professor in Health Communication.
collaboration with the health communication scientists in the School—Director and Professor Elisia Cohen, Assistant Professor Sherri Katz, Associate Director and Professor María Len-Rios, Teaching Associate Professor Susan LoRusso, Associate Professor Rebekah Nagler, and Professor Marco Yzer—the goal is to expand opportunities connecting faculty and students to educational and research opportunities. The center will hold a mental health symposium in the spring, launching Yzer’s new book on mental health communication. “As the firstever gathering on this topic, the Mental Health Communication Symposium will focus on the deliberate use of messaging to relieve the plight of people with mental illness,” said Yzer.
Vraga regularly hosts summer book clubs connecting political and health communication researchers to study the relationship between social media and the spread of misinformation. The long-term goal is to elevate the reach and impact of this faculty research group by bringing annual thought leaders to campus interested in health communication problems, support undergraduate and graduate student mentored research projects in health communication and journalism, and establish a framework for new educational initiatives that may include distributed learning opportunities for professionals and an interdisciplinary minor.
The center will be led by a collaborative model where leaders will develop events like an annual colloquium and a monthly brown bag series, all to help connect interdisciplinary health communication researchers. Undergraduate and graduate research assistant opportunities will connect to this work. An education initiative at the undergraduate or professional M.A. program level could develop and connect to this research institute as well.
SILHA CENTER: 40 YEARS STRONG
THE SILHA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF MEDIA ETHICS AND LAW focuses on the concepts and values that define the highest ideals of American journalism: freedom and fairness. Led for 25 years by Professor Jane Kirtley, the Silha Center honors the importance of these ideals by examining their theoretical and practical applications and by recognizing the interdependence of ethical and legal principles.
The Center mounts an endowed annual public lecture (see sidebar) and also sponsors forums on a variety of topics. Digital privacy, national security, confidential sources, ethical issues in sports and political reporting, and the law and ethics affecting film restoration are among topics covered in recent years. The Center funds graduate student research and publishes the Bulletin, a thrice-yearly media law and ethics digital newsletter.
Professor Jane Kirtley continues to speak about media law around the world. She is interviewed regularly by national news organizations like The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post about press freedom, libel laws, media ethics and more.
Jane Kirtley is director of the Silha Center.
Student Excellence Recognition
LAST SPRING, the Hubbard School held an event in honor of student excellence, donor support, and the Class of 2024. Attendees enjoyed lunch and the chance to celebrate another successful year.
&
MORE THAN 150 STUDENTS, PARENTS, DONORS, FACULTY
members and community partners attended a special student, graduation, awards and donor event on May 10, 2024, at McNamara Alumni Center. The event focused on highlighting graduating seniors and student scholarship recipients. The event also celebrated great student work from the previous academic year, and honored the donors who helped make the work possible. Donors attended a special coffee hour prior to the event, and then attendees mingled with Goldy Gopher before sitting down for lunch and guest speakers.
When speaking during lunch to guests, particularly the graduating seniors who may have missed their high school graduations because of COVID-19, Director Elisia Cohen said, “As reporters, as strategic communicators, and as teachers, we do the best with the knowledge we have, in the moment we have it. And, sometimes we need to have the humility to say we don’t know.
“We don’t know what the future holds for you,” she continued. “We don’t know if there will be another pandemic, another war, another peace. But we know that you are resilient. We know that you care deeply, that you are trained to seek out and report on the truth, to communicate ethically and responsibly, and to be a leader in working to make the world a better place.”
Journalism major and 2024 graduate Emily Storm was the student speaker at the event. Storm talked about her journey that brought her to the Hubbard School, her
time with the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the experience she gained, her gratitude for the donors of her scholarship, and the support and dedication of her instructors.
“I’ve found I can stand where I am in such a large part because of the trust my professors have in me as a journalist; each one of them inspires me through being the impressive result of a long and fruitful career,” Storm said. “Their classes and students are a testament to their passion, and it is those intentional teachings that are truly special. To see those people who’ve accomplished so much invest in me and express their faith in my abilities means the world to us students and solidifies my confidence in myself. Through them, I’m emboldened to do things I never thought I could.”
Keynote speaker Mukhtar Ibrahim (B.A. ’11), founder of Sahan Journal, spoke directly to students, inspiring them to be leaders in their new careers. He encouraged them to make connections with those around them and be bold in their future endeavors.
The event ended with Cohen asking different groups to stand up and receive applause. She honored Hubbard School Ambassadors, student group participants, scholarship recipients, and the Class of 2024. “We are very proud to call you our students, and we are even more proud to now call you our alumni,” she said. “Speaking on behalf of everyone at the School, and all our friends and community partners, we wish you all happiness and future success.”
Student speaker Emily Storm (B.A. ’24) spoke about her time at the Hubbard School and her future plans. She is now a morning news anchor at KOBI-TV in Oregon.
Senior Lecturer Gayle Golden with several of her students.
Left to right: Director of Undergraduate Studies Valérie BélairGagnon, keynote speaker Mukhtar Ibrahim, and Director Elisia Cohen.
Silha Center Director and Professor Jane Kirtley and Carol Handberg.
Left to right: Assistant Professor Jill Bonham, Outreach Director and Teaching Professor Scott Meyer, Padilla VP of Human Resources Katina Shelton, and Professor Erich Sommerfeldt.
Left to right: Scott Meyer, Linda and Dave Mona, and Elisia Cohen.
Left to right: Elisia Cohen, Ron Handberg, and Tom Yuzer.
Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream and his scholarship recipient, Bianca Caputo.
Jim and Jen Schweigert with their scholarship recipient, Cole Blackett.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH?
INVESTIGATING RESPONSES TO SEEMINGLY CONFLICTING HEALTH INFORMATION IN THE MEDIA
When keeping up with the news gets frustrating, it may be a sign to return to high school science class.
BY REGAN CARTER
dissertation more than 10 years ago. During that time, she stumbled across a news article reporting results from a recently published study that strongly advised against the regular consumption of red wine. However, another equally trustworthy news source reported that a different research study had linked red wine to good heart health. Puzzled, Nagler observed that the product in question had not been altered, yet the information surrounding its risks and benefits seemed to change on a dime.
This conundrum of beverage consumption led her to an investigation that would steer her career for years to come.
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
As Nagler quickly found, conflicting health information extends to topics far beyond alcohol. Nearly any longstanding thread of discourse surrounding nutrition and exercise has resulted in seemingly opposite scientific findings at some point along the line. This apparent conflict often has negative impacts on consumers and, in Nagler’s experience, may turn people away from fully trusting any health-related recommendations.
BY NOW, MANY INTERNET
USERS ARE AWARE OF THE VOLUME of misinformation that can be found online, especially surrounding topics like health and wellness. However, the conversation becomes more complicated when trust in reputable sources wavers. What are consumers meant to do when reliable sources seem to promote conflicting ideas?
This question came to Associate Professor Rebekah Nagler while she was working on her
The methods of information consumption play as much of a role in the conflict as the health content itself. Rather than simply opening a newspaper to the section titled “Health,” or watching the news on TV, current generations are gravitating towards social media as a way of keeping up to date. The sheer volume of content on any given social media platform can be enough to confuse even the most savvy of Internet users.
Online hubs are not, however, the only sources of conflict. Nagler said she has found that “interpersonal conversation is also a part of it.” Conversations with friends, debates with classmates, and even home remedies for illness from your parents may be contributing to the battle over truth in the field of health.
Clinical conversations add yet another layer to the
conversation. Doctors, trusted sources responsible for providing accurate advice, may provide seemingly contradictory information about cancer screening tests or other health recommendations over time.
With so many voices attempting to provide accurate health facts, any person might feel lost trying to get a handle on it all. Nagler has found, over the course of her work, that consumers who feel frustrated at apparent information conflict may be unreceptive to future unrelated health campaigns. They may even turn away from campaigns regarding health topics on which evidence and experts generally agree.
Reminding people of science's fluid nature can be a game changer. When consumers are aware that
the scientific journey involves
change, they are more likely to withstand
the negative effects
of
exposure
to
conflicting
information. This may mean that future health campaigns they come across might be more likely to hit home.
MAKING SCIENCE MAKE SENSE
To Nagler, one solution to solving this information challenge is reminding consumers about the scientific process. In the quest for knowledge, scientists often make discoveries that build on previous work. Thus, the state of the science evolves.
For a recent example, Nagler points to the COVID19 pandemic.
Especially within the first few months of the global event, average citizens were given a range of guidance on a number of health measures, including in which environments to wear a mask and when to get vaccinated. Nagler noted that
“all of this shifting guidance was really a function of science trying to keep up with something that was changing and new.” The nature of the virus didn’t change, but experts were still learning new information daily and relaying their findings to the public.
Such a process is certainly not limited to COVID-19. As doctors and scientists continue to gain more knowledge on alcohol consumption, dietary habits, exercise regimens, cancer screening tests, and the like, so too will they continue to share their findings, even if the resulting recommendations seemingly go against the results of previous research.
Reminding people of science’s fluid nature can be a game changer. As demonstrated in her recently-published work, “Sustaining positive perceptions of science in the face of conflicting health information: An experimental test of messages about the process of scientific discovery” (Social Science & Medicine), when consumers are aware that the scientific journey involves change, they are more likely to withstand the negative effects of exposure to conflicting information. This may also mean that future health campaigns they come across might be more likely to hit home.
STARTING AT THE SOURCE
Most Americans learn about the ups and downs of the scientific process sometime in school. However, many forget about the nature of experimentation as soon as they leave high school chemistry class.
Nagler posits that some alleviation of mistrust and confusion surrounding health information might be found in the K-12 system. If children are taught from a young age that what is considered “scientific fact” might change over time, and if they are reminded of this notion as they grow up, it may be that this capacity for understanding scientific research sticks with them into adulthood.
Formal education aside, Nagler is optimistic that a well-informed next generation might remain resilient in the face of a dynamic health landscape. In the meantime, a few helpful reminders from school for the current era of Internet users might be the key to repairing trust in health research and recommendations.
CAN YOU HEAR ME?
INVESTIGATING CONSOLIDATION AND ACCESSIBILITY IN MEDIA
How do we ensure access to information and protect the speech
of underrepresented groups?
BY REGAN CARTER
MANY AMERICANS TODAY EXPECT ACCESS TO information where and wherever it is wanted. With the internet at our fingertips and a world wide web to explore, it’s easier than ever to be up to speed on the latest news. But this is only true for the people who have quality access.
Associate Professor Christopher Terry’s exploration into media accessibility began in an environment steeped in such a mindset. As a longtime broadcast professional, he witnessed the efforts at ownership consolidation unfold. Observing the negative impacts on diversity and localism, he determined that he wanted “to have a direct impact on the policy side of things.” This resolve has since led him to pursue a variety of policy research.
FINDING EQUITABLE ACCESSIBILITY
A major focus of Terry’s work has been examining issues surrounding FCC regulations, including media ownership, internet regulation and political advertising. He applies a mixture of policy evaluation and legal history methodology to examine the impact of regulatory policy on the environment for diverse political speech, including the speech of traditionally marginalized groups.
Addressing the intersections between regulatory policy and public communication from a range of media regulation perspectives including
ownership, political advertising, and content regulation for broadcast stations and the internet, Terry is proud that the research he does has been used by the FCC to support minority ownership initiatives. He is especially excited about the fact that some portions of this work were completed with the help of Dean’s First-Year Research & Creative Scholars (DFRACS) at the University of Minnesota. These Honors Program students assisted in some portions of data collection and analysis in 2021, making the information presented to the FCC a year-long work in progress.
MONITORING POLITICAL ADVERTISING
While Terry is interested in making the same facts available to all, he is equally dedicated to discovering who is sharing what information.
Last year, Terry and colleague Fernando Severino were awarded the 2022 Broadcasting Education Association’s Outstanding JRAM Article of the Year for their article titled “Spanish-language radio and issue advertising: Targeting latinos during the 2018 elections.” True to the subject, the duo investigated the sources of political advertisements on Spanish-language radio during the series of local and federal elections in 2018.
Fillmore County, Minn., has less than 75 percent broadband penetration. This low level of internet access can stagnate an entire county. Terry is determined to learn more about what changes stronger connectivity might have on the bottom lines of local farmers.
What they discovered was that large GOP outreach organizations funded and created the political advertising content heard on Spanish-speaking channels with significant regular audiences. Their findings surprised some of
the leading researchers in government transparency.
As part of their continuing dedication to keeping this information alive, Terry and Severino are currently working on a follow-up paper similarly analyzing the data from the 2022 election cycle. The pair is curious about how the content sources have changed, or remained altogether the same, over the years.
portions of America almost entirely out of the reach of broadband internet. To do so, Terry will be spending a significant amount of time traveling from the Twin Cities campus to Fillmore County, Minn.
This rural area of the state, a mere two-hour drive southeast from his office in Murphy Hall, has less than 75 percent broadband penetration. This low level of internet access can have impacts on more than a dropped call or a glitchy virtual meeting; it can stagnate an entire county’s economy. Terry is determined to learn more about the choices that need to be made in order to succeed in an area with little internet access, as well as what changes stronger connectivity might have on the bottom lines of local farmers.
HEADING OUT OF NETWORK
Looking to the future, Terry’s passion for the study of advertising and information accessibility is now taking him somewhere few media scholars are interested in going: almost entirely off the grid.
As a College of Liberal Arts Seed Grant for Social Sciences Research Award recipient, Terry has made it his mission to delve into the dwindling
Meanwhile, Terry is excited to be teaching several courses on campus this semester. The majority of his course content centers on his professional forte: media policy and regulation. “The thing about teaching law and policy,” he said, “is that it’s always changing.”
As the media landscape continues to change on a dime with each Supreme Court ruling and FCC decision, Terry revels in the challenge of teaching his students the fundamentals of media regulation, while simultaneously keeping them up to date on the practical implications of the changing legal environment. He hopes that, as more people become aware of the content around them, they too will join in his efforts to make information and connectivity accessible to all.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
THE SILENT EAVESD ROPPER:
A DEEPER LOOK AT CORPORATE SURVEILLANCE AND TARGETED ADVERTISING
Are our smartphones getting a little too smart to let consumers feel like they have privacy?
BY REGAN CARTER
TARGETED ADS ARE NOT NEW TO MANY CONSUMERS
It likely does not shock you when, after purchasing some pens online, you suddenly get more pop-up ads for similar products, such as pencils, paper, and even more pens.
Sometimes, however, the ads might appear to show up in a more sinister fashion. Purchasing pens is one thing, but what if you were simply discussing pens with a coworker? Would the subsequent ads for office supplies feel helpful or invasive?
This line of questioning guides Associate Professor Claire M. Segijn’s dive into corporate surveillance and consumer responsiveness.
THE STUDY OF SURVEILLANCE
Within the last couple of years, Segijn’s work has expanded to encompass various forms of corporate surveillance and conversation-related advertising. However, her primary focus started out in an entirely different area.
As a Ph.D. candidate, Segijn was interested in the ways that humans process information while multitasking. Particularly, she was intrigued by the ways consumers might remember, or forget, brands when advertising pops up in the middle of different tasks. From there, her work shifted to focus on personalized advertising, corporate surveillance, and privacy concerns.
Segijn’s particular interest in surveillance began as a matter of personal interest. In conversations with students and other colleagues, she noted repeated stories of people holding conversations near phones. When an Internet browser was next opened, eerily similar advertisements would pop up. Time and again, Segijn heard fears and suspicions surrounding how much a phone hears and what it does with any information that it supposedly gleans. These exact fears sparked a new research journey.
PHONE OR FOE?
Advertisers will likely be interested in what consumers believe about targeted ads and how those beliefs influence their decisions.
Last year, Segijn and co-author Dr. Joanna Strycharz, along with an extensive research team, completed a survey of consumers across the United States, the Netherlands and Poland. They asked participants about their experiences with targeted advertising, especially how it related to their perceptions of their phones listening to interpersonal conversations. Segijn and her colleagues found, through both data and interpersonal exchange, that “it’s a topic that a lot of people seem to experience, so that’s why we really wanted to systematically examine it.”
Their discoveries, as reported in ‘“My phone must be listening!”: Consumers’ experiences and beliefs around phones ‘listening’ to offline conversations for personalized advertising” (March 2024), demonstrated that approximately 78 percent of American participants believed that at least one ad they had received on their mobile device was seemingly related to a previous offline conversation.
Segijn quickly concedes that there is not a substantial body of evidence to fully conclude that phones are, in fact, curious about what you chat about with your friends. Tech executives across the board have denied that their devices are eavesdropping on your conversations. In the case of the eerily
pertinent advertising, it’s possible that a consumer may have entered a related search earlier that they forgot about, or someone in their geographic area made a similar search, so an advertising algorithm placed the ad on their own feed as well.
With all that being said, the fact that people believe their phones might be listening is a worthy object of study on its own. Segijn’s upcoming project involves taking the advertising professionals’ perspectives into
will get the chance to participate in parallel tasks. This group will get the opportunity to analyze news reports on the phenomenon that Segijn is studying. These students will get the exciting chance to offer additional content that can create meaningful conversations with Segijn’s findings.
TARGETED ADS OUTSIDE OF ADVERTISING
Segijn is confident that her work has implications reaching far further than digital advertising. “Folk theories,” or informal theories that arise from popular observation, can lead to the investigation of real phenomena. Learning these folk theories and other beliefs people hold regarding their phones may inform how journalists and theorists alike discuss corporate surveillance and smart technologies.
account. Even if there is no feasible way for phones to be tapping into your private conversations, advertisers will likely be interested in what consumers believe about targeted ads and how those beliefs influence their decisions.
This next project brings a unique collaboration to Segijn’s body of work. Students in the Dean’s First-Year Research and Creative Scholars (DFRACS) program
From Segijn’s perspective, the more important variables in the debates surrounding targeted advertising aren’t the ads themselves, or even the screens that display them. They are the consumers themselves. “For the effects it may have on consumers,” she posited, “it may not necessarily matter whether it’s actually happening or not.” Regardless of whether phones are actually listening in, behavioral shifts in consumers may already be taking place.
Rather than simply act as a helpful piece of equipment, people who are wary of their phones may begin to view their cellphones as monitoring devices. As such, some consumers might begin to change their words and actions within a certain range of their phones. This alteration, known in some circles as a “chilling effect,” may imply further ethical concerns surrounding the use of personal communication devices.
While Segijn remains skeptical of any theories that paint her phone as an ever-listening ear intent on gleaning information about her life, she is excited by the future of smart technology and the conversations to be had surrounding its function and ethics.
WHY I GIVE: DAVID THERKELSEN
The former faculty member and alum is thinking of the Hubbard School when planning his financial future.
❙ INTERVIEW BY KATIE DOHMAN
DAVID THERKELSEN FIRST SET FOOT IN MURPHY HALL in the spring of 1966. The last time he was inside Murphy Hall was spring of 2024. That’s a 58-year relationship. Therkelsen is many things to the School—in fact, former director Al Tims called him an “utility infielder”—an alum, an adjunct who taught undergraduate and graduate courses, an interim director, a contributor to the rigor of the public relations track curriculum, a mentor, and more.
During and after his collegiate career and prior to arriving at the school in a professional capacity, he logged three years as a working journalist with the local weekly Sun newspapers.
“A
journalism degree equips you for a lot of roles. You learn to communicate well, learn to think critically. You develop healthy skepticism. These are qualities that make a good leader, a good executive.”
“All through my undergrad, I worked full time as a reporter and editor,” he said of the more traditionally nonlinear student path of the era. “It was the greatest meritocracy I ever worked at. They didn’t care if you had a degree or what it was in, if you were 22. If you showed you could do something, they let you do it. If that’s your job while you’re also working on a journalism degree, there’s such synergy. I could turn my work stories into class assignments; it was a really wonderful job to have. And I thought it would be my career. But it was three very valuable years of a 47-year career.”
But with his wife, Linda (also an alum!), and a growing family, Therkelsen says he left the work he loved behind and took a public relations job with very little training. But it suited him, and he worked himself all the way up to executive and CEO positions with the Regional Transit Authority and then with the American Red Cross.
In l996, Therkelsen saw Hubbard School Professor Dan Wackman at a Padilla event and suggested he might
like to teach someday when he had more time. “Dan said, ‘When, exactly, Dave, will you have more time?’ I took his point immediately, and started the work to pick up adjunct teaching.” He said he particularly enjoyed teaching Public Relations Writing and Tactics, which he describes as the “boot camp course for PR students.” He said to this day, former students tell him it was one of the toughest and most demanding courses, with the highest grading standards in the school.
Combining the real-world career advice with the books suited him. “If you get that blend right, it’s powerful,” he said.
He also served as the interim director of the Professional Master’s in Strategic Communication program while the School searched for a new one, and served as the board president of the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA)—a real full-circle moment, as he met Linda at an NSPA event in high school. He also put in his time as PRSSA advisor, especially valuable to students since he had once been the PRSA president himself.
Therkelsen said he keeps saying yes because, “I loved being on a Division I major urban campus every single day. I loved that life. I’ve published in scholarly journals, I’ve written a book. Being in an environment about learning and scholarship and beauty and stimulating things going on—elevating the School’s vision of public relations—felt like a real contribution.”
Now that Therkelsen is mostly retired, and his family and children are prepared financially, he and Linda thought it was time to plan their estate and make some bequests. Those two went to the Hubbard School and the American Red Cross. “It’s an opportunity to make a gift of some size without having to do anything more difficult than dying someday,” he said.
Why the Hubbard School? “A journalism degree equips you for a lot of roles,” he said. “You learn to communicate well, learn to think critically. You develop healthy skepticism. These are qualities that make a good leader, a good executive. Being fully aware of the state of journalism in this society right now, I still don’t think it would ever be a mistake to earn a journalism degree because it will underscore your success in almost any field.”
And, he said, despite so much evidence to the contrary, he still maintains a sense of optimism. “My optimism is in the students themselves,” he said. “I taught more than 1,000 students. Not only did they have communication and writing talent, but the thinking capability was almost uniformly there. When you see that in student after student, it does reinforce your hope that some will do important things, and most will be good citizens and thoughtful professionals.” HOW TO
Goldy Gopher Visits
FACULTY NEWS
COLIN AGUR is in the early stages of a book project at the intersection of mobile communication and environmental studies. The book, tentatively titled On the Wire: Mobile Technology and the Natural World, will explore the role and significance of smartphone nature apps.
SID BEDINGFIELD
photos and videos at the event, and posted them after the event. This is MN PRSA’s premier event, and the students were integral to event promotion and coverage. Bonham was accepted in the Public Relations Society of America College of Fellows.
launched a new version of the School’s international media graduate seminar that examined media, populism, and democratic decline around the globe. He also published an essay on mainstream journalism and civil rights in the Routledge Companion to American Journalism History, and submitted a journal article that will eventually be part of a larger book project.
VALÉRIE BÉLAIR-GAGNON published The Paradox of Connection: How Digital Media Is Transforming Journalistic Labor with the University of Illinois Press, which examines how journalists’ practices are formed, negotiated, and maintained in dynamic social media environments. She will also act as Director of Undergraduate Studies for another term.
MATT CARLSON presented his paper “Epistemic crises, epistemic contests, and epistemic opportunities: Disentangling interpretive positions for considering journalism’s future” at the Epistemic Crisis: Journalism, Academia and the Production of Knowledge Conference at University College Dublin.
ELISIA COHEN was named the Cowles Chair in Journalism and Mass Communication by the College of Liberal Arts. She supports the boards of the Minnesota Newspaper Association, the Minnesota Urban Debate League, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Associated Collegiate Press, and is the faculty representative to the Minnesota Hillel.
DIANE CORMANY was promoted to contract associate professor. She also published her peer-reviewed article, “Remembering the Recession: Marketplace and Status Quo Journalism” in the Journal of Communication Inquiry.
RUTH DEFOSTER received the 2024 Marshall Tanick Instructor Award. She also published the book Catholic Horror on Television: Haunting Faith.
GAYLE GOLDEN received the 2024 Hubbard School Service Award, served on the CLA Dean Search Committee and hosted a Women’s Faculty Cabinet retreat, co-sponsored by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Women’s Center, addressing the effects of bias in hiring, non-promotable work burdens, and gender pay disparities on retirement choices and realities. She was also selected as a recipient of the Award for Excellence in Academic Unit Service by the University Provost.
JISU HUH earned the University of Minnesota 2023-24 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education.
MARK JENSON served as one of 16 faculty members from across the country attending the annual Admercia Conference in Salt Lake City in May. Jenson officially retired in May 2024, but continues to support Murphy Hall as a Curricular Fellow.
JENNIFER JOHNSON led MN+folio, a new, non-credit class for aspiring writers, art directors, and producers. MATT CIKOVIC, SARA QUINN, and adjunct faculty member ERIK KVALSETH were also involved with all aspects of planning and launching the program. Twelve local agencies also contributed to the program
JILL BONHAM is proud of the UMN PRSSA students who helped with the 75th Annual MN PRSA Classics Event. Students wrote social media posts and email copy promoting the event, presented awards with a PRSA member team, captured
JANE KIRTLEY was a panelist for “Misinformation and Polarization in High Stakes Elections,” a panel at Global Elections and Democracy, a conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 24, 2024, hosted by the World Press SCHOLARSHIP &
Matt Cikovic
Jisu Huh
Jill Bonham
Gayle Golden
Colin Agur
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon
Ruth DeFoster
Sid Bedingfield
Diane Cormany
Matt Carlson
Institute. She also appeared on a panel, “How is authorship for copyright to be determined in AI-generated content?” at the Broadcast Education Association 2024 Convention in Las Vegas in April, and on another panel, “Front Page News: Working with the Media in Class Action Litigation,” at the Impact Fund Class Action Conference in San Francisco in February.
JANE KIRTLEY and SCOTT LIBIN hosted a delegation of international journalists with the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists on April 9, 2024 at Murphy Hall. The title of the program was “New and Traditional Broadcast Media,” and included discussions on media ethics, the First Amendment, broadcast journalism, and social media and digital technology.
MARÍA E. LEN-RÍOS is lead author of the book chapter “Public relations and understanding culture as a social determinant of health,” with coauthors Rachel Young (Iowa) and Amanda Hinnant (Missouri) in the new book edited by Brooke McKeever titled Public Relations for Public Health and Social Good, which was published this summer by Routledge. Her coauthors also presented their work “Covering health equity: U.S. health journalists’ understanding of and attitudes toward social determinants of health and racial inequities,” at the April 2024 Kentucky Conference on Health Communication.
SCOTT LIBIN co-led the Anchor Leadership Summit at RTDNA24, the international conference of the Radio Television Digital News Association, in Milwaukee on June
12, 2024. The program, launched by Libin at The Poynter Institute 20 years ago, brings together television anchors from around the country to focus on their essential leadership role in the newsroom.
SUSAN LORUSSO was selected as a TRIO McNair Scholars mentor. She is mentoring McNair Scholar and Strategic Communication major, Jessica Parra. Together, they are working on their research project “Spotlight on suicide: A content analysis of online news coverage of celebrity suicide deaths, 2012-2023.”
REGINA MCCOMBS
AMY O’CONNOR was selected as a University of Minnesota Honors Program Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. In her role, she will teach two honors seminars about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Minnesota mining communities.
served as a judge for the Society for News Design Best of Digital Design Competition. She also coordinated this year’s Northern Exposure workshop, which welcomed more than 100 photojournalists and students to the three-day visual journalism conference. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Senior Fellow.
REBEKAH NAGLER
HASEON PARK and ALLISON STEINKE landed a publishing agreement for a branding textbook forthcoming in 2025 with Rowman + Littlefield.
SARA QUINN was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Senior Fellow.
received the 2024 Graduate Student Organization (GSO) Dedication to Students Award. She also delivered a talk titled “Confronting the perennial challenge of conflicting health information” at the February 2024 Ivan L. Preston Research Colloquium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
HYEJOON RIM, along with co-authors, presented “Corporate social advocacy (CSA) through the employee lens: Insights and perspectives” at the International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC), Orlando, Fla., in March. Rim moved on from the Hubbard School in May 2024 to teach at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Jane Kirtley
Mark Jenson
Sara Quinn
Sherri Jean Katz
Amy O’Connor
Rebekah Nagler
Scott Libin
Hyejoon Rim
María E. Len-Ríos
Haseon Park
Regina McCombs
Jennifer Johnson
Susan LoRusso
CLAIRE SEGIJN earned the Warwick MidCareer Faculty Research Award for her project “Media effects and ethical ramifications of phones ‘listening’ into offline conversations.” With this program, the College of Liberal Arts recognizes and invests in the next generation of faculty who are engaging in new lines of research and creative activity that will both shape our academic fields and benefit our communities.
ERICH SOMMERFELDT was promoted to full professor. Sommerfeldt and Scott Meyer received support from the Office of Distributed Learning to help expand the reach of the Professional Master’s in Strategic Communication.
ERICH SOMMERFELDT and ADAM SAFFER published “Network dynamics of civil society: a longitudinal study in Malaysia amidst changing political opportunity structures” in Human Connection Research.
STACIE SWENSON attended the Digital Summit in Minneapolis and left inspired to bring innovative concepts straight into her classroom. Themes like AI, smart goal-setting and brands' social impact are just some of the future-looking topics her students can expect to dive into this semester.
CHRIS TERRY was appointed by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to serve on the Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC) where he advises the agency on digital divide issues including rural broadband. He was also awarded an Inclusive, Accessible, and Responsive Course
Redesign mini-grant to support course redesign by the CLA Offices of Undergraduate Education and LATIS. And he discussed the state of free speech law and the internet during an invited talk at Monmouth University’s Law Day.
BENJAMIN TOFF was promoted to the position of associate professor with tenure. He was named a University of Minnesota McKnight Presidential Fellow, which recognizes excellence in research and scholarship, and leadership. Toff was also named an Emerging Scholar by the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
EMILY VRAGA was promoted to full professor. She received a three-year NSF grant with Dr. Jaideep Srivastava (UMN) on “Understanding network structure and communication for supporting information authenticity.” She was also named the AEJMC 2024 Krieghbaum Mid-Career Award Recipient in August.
MARCO YZER participated on a panel on mental health communication at the 18th Kentucky Conference on Health Communication in April. This panel was presented in the context of his upcoming Handbook of Mental Health Communication. The 35-chapter Handbook will be published by Wiley Blackwell in the fall of this year.
ALVIN ZHOU won the Fullintel Media Insights and Impact Award at the International Public Relations Research Conference in Orlando, Fla., for his paper, “AI can help!: How ChatGPT enhances brand communication for social media engagement” with his advisee Jiacheng Huang.
GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS LEARNING
MARAL ABDOLLAHI successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Consumers' responses to virtual and human social media influencers and strategic and ethical implications for advertising.” This project was awarded the University's Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, the American Academy of Advertising Dissertation Fellowship, and the AEJMC ad division Graduate Student Research Scholarship.
BUGIL CHAN published “Moving beyond the sector: The spillover effects of an NPO’s crisis on the same and different sectors” in Public Relations Review. He joined the University of Tennessee as an assistant professor.
MONICA CRAWFORD earned the Top Student Paper from the International Communication Association (ICA) Sports Communication Interest Group for “Transgender athletes’ testimonies of existence and resistance: Breaking gender binaries in online women’s sports media.”
YUMING FANG successfully defended her dissertation, which reported on two experimental studies that she designed
Marco Yzer
Erich Sommerfeldt
Benjamin Toff
Emily Vraga
Christopher Terry
Adam Saffer
Alvin Zhou
Bugil Chang Monica Crawford
Chloe Gansen Jiacheng Huang
Claire Segijn
to test whether message features influence effects of perceived familiarity with COVID-19 misinformation. Fang started her new assistant professor position at Augsburg this fall.
CHLOE GANSEN received a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for 2024-2025. The fellowship gives the University of Minnesota’s most accomplished Ph.D. candidates an opportunity to devote fulltime effort to an outstanding research project by providing time to finalize and write their dissertation during the fellowship year.
JIACHENG HUANG and faculty advisor
ALVIN ZHOU won the Fullintel Media Insights and Impact Award at the International Public Relations Research Conference in Orlando, Fla.
NICOLE KLEVANSKAYA successfully defended her thesis, “Loyal critics: How pro-Russian bloggers combined embedded journalism and propaganda on Telegram during Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
KATIE KIM successfully defended her dissertation, “Understanding employee’ moral communicative behaviors in response to corporate social irresponsibility (CSI): From a co-creational perspective.” This project received generous support from the Casey Research Award. Kim will move to Knoxville to begin her Assistant Professor position at the University of Tennessee.
JINGREN LI published “Virtual influencers in advertisements: Examining the role of authenticity and identification” in Journal of Interactive Advertising.
JINGREN LI and RONGJIN (JINNY) ZHANG both received a 2024 ICORIA grant. To encourage young researchers who provide high-quality advertising research, but have limited resources to attend the yearly International Conference on Research in Advertising, the European Advertising
Academy provides a yearly ICORIA student grant by waiving the conference fee for selected researchers.
RONGJIN (JINNY) ZHANG presented both “Using Situational Theory of Problem-Solving (STOPS) to promote corrective actions to combat misinformation on social media” and “Killing two birds with one stone: The role of efficacy messages in motivating correction on social media” at the International Communication Association conference in June.
RHYS MOGER attended the annual Popular Culture Association conference held in Chicago. They presented their paper, “Analyzing Malcolm in the Middle’s critique of psychiatric ableism in education,” on March 29 as part of a Disability Studies panel.
MICHAEL OFORI earned the 2024 J. Jeffery Auer Top Paper and Top Debut Paper Award from the Political Communication Interest Group at this year’s Central States Communication Association conference.
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NEWS
MEGAN BARSNESS is a wish intern with Make-A-Wish Minnesota.
GUSTAV DEMARS won second place in the Hard News - Coverage of Court/ Crime at the Minnesota Newspaper Association annual conference in January for his article “Brasel’s murder reverberates in community,” which was published in the Park Bugle.
ALEXANDRA CHRISLU received a MADE Internship via the ANA Educational Foundation. Over the summer she worked at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. The MADE (Marketing & Advertising Education) Program has placed more than 180 students in paid summer internships at top companies and has connected hundreds more students to the advertising and marketing industry through the MADE online platform.
ALEX KARWOWSKI was a news intern with WCCO for the summer. In the fall he will be the next sports editor for the Minnesota Daily.
CORA KUHLENBECK is a social media marketing intern at Jack Link’s.
ADHAM MOHAMED earned the Dr. Willard Thompson scholarship from the Minnesota Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The scholarship recognizes students who excel in the study of public relations and communications and the award was given out at the Minnesota PRSA Classics Award Ceremony in May. The late Willard Thompson was a faculty member at the Hubbard School.
JESSICA PARRA is a TRIO McNair Scholar being mentored by Assistant Professor Susan LoRusso. Together,
One Strategic Communication Campaigns section developed anIntegrated Marketing Campaign for a new General Mills Mexican seasonings/ spices product called Mezco to help introduce the brand into the market. Four teams presented their final presentations to the clients in April.
Katie Kim Jingren Li
Rongjin Zhang Rhys Moger
Michael Ofori
they are working on their research project “Spotlight on suicide: A content analysis of online news coverage of celebrity suicide deaths, 2012-2023.”
JESSICA SCHONOFF completed CITI Program Course 1: Social and Behavioral Research Best Practices for Clinical Research. This certification was completed through her strategic research and analytics course. She is a marketing leadership intern at Pentair and will graduate in December.
SABRINA SALGUERO DEL CID is an Upper Midwest Emmy Student Production Award recipient for her pieces “College Students Celebrate Halloween At Bingo Night” and “Universal Transit Pass Doubles In Ridership.”
KATIE SMITHBERG was a recipient of the 2024 President’s Student Leadership & Service Award, which recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of outstanding student leaders at the University of Minnesota. It is presented to students for their exceptional leadership and service to the University and the surrounding community.
JASMINE SNOW received a Crystal Pillar Upper Midwest Emmy Student Production Award recipient for her piece “On the Mend.”
GRACE HENRIETTA and AMELIA ROESSLER placed in the Top 20 in the Hearst Investigative Team contest for their Minnesota Daily story “Family of bridge suicide victim petitions safety improvements at UMN.” Other students who were nominated for the Hearst Awards include MYAH GOGG and KYRE JOHNSON for the Photojournalism: Picture Story/Series; and THEO FRANZ and EITAN SCHOENBERG in the Sports Writing category.
The Report for Minnesota program matched three students with outstate newspapers for summer internships. LEO POMERENKE worked at the West Central Tribune in Willmar. CAROLINE (CJ) JULSTROM, joined the Brainerd Dispatch. CALLI HADLER worked at the Mankato Free Press. Report for Minnesota offers a professional development opportunity for journalism students in outstate Minnesota. The program provides students with a housing stipend and 40 hours a week paid for 10 weeks.
The NATIONAL STUDENT ADVERTISING COMPETITION team came in first place at the district competition in Fargo in April. In addition, the team took home the awards for Best Presentation and Best Book.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HUBBARD SCHOOL HONORS STUDENTS.
The Spring 2024 graduates with Summa Cum Laude Honors (and their research) include LILY HART (Missing, murdered, and misrepresented: A content analysis of news framing in mainstream and indigenous news outlets); RACHEL HENCKE (Navigating NIL: Addressing parent education on name, image, and likeness policies for youth athletes); JASON RUTMAN (Reddit usage among the Type 1 Diabetes community: How an online forum is used for information seeking and social support); ELEANOR SNEE (Examining the association between adolescent vape use, personal networks, and perception of anti-vaping messages); NOAH VANDE LOO (Local versus external issue group advertising: A content analysis of political advertisements in Minnesota elections); BONNIE YOUNG (Sounds that sell products: A content analysis of viral audio on TikTok and levels of engagement). Those with Magna Cum Laude Honors (and their research) include NOAH MITCHELL (Geopolitical alignment of host states and media frames of major global sporting events); EMMA SOLIS (Social media fueling fire between the FTC and environmental impact); LAUREN VANDER PAS (Information seeking behaviors during natural disasters: Connection between information sources and individuals’ behavior during Hurricane Florence).
Twelve Hubbard School strategic communication majors and Backpack student employees took home trophies for their work during ADFED’S THE SHOW, an advertising competition between the biggest and brightest in the industry. The event took place on March 1, 2024 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. ADAM BERGH and COOPER OLSON took home Silver in the Student - Outdoor Board (Flat or 3D) category for their ‘Ski Idaho’ campaign. ELEANOR SNEE took Bronze in the Student - Outdoor Board (Flat or 3D) category for her ‘Bachman’s Making Beds’ ad. MELANIE KETELSON took home two Bronze awards in the Student - Logo Design category for her ‘Prohibition’ and ‘The Surface’ designs. ABBEY JONES, MARIAN MASINDA, ELEANOR SNEE and BONNIE YOUNG brought home Bronze in the Student - Magazine Advertising Campaign category for their ‘Bachman’s Plants, not Kids’ campaign.
Mark Jenson's AD STRATEGY/CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT section presented their advertising campaigns to Famous Dave’s. The students were thrilled with the opportunity to present to the marketing team and to the founder of the restaurant himself, Famous Dave Anderson.
NEW COURSE BOOSTS PORTFOLIOS
A group of students participated in the brand-new MN+FOLIO course during the May session. MN+Folio is an immersive experience in building a pre-professional creative portfolio. The 11-day, hands-on opportunity helped students conceptualize and produce ideas with professional coaching at every step of the process. Students left with exceptional experience, a larger network, and a portfolio to help launch their advertising, PR, or marketing creative career. Students worked with Hubbard School faculty JENNIFER JOHNSON, MATT CIKOVIC and SARA QUINN, along with visiting professionals. The students included NATALIE AUE, BRYN DONOVAN, CONNIE DUOPU, LILY HANSON, ANNA KOSKI, SAMARA LINK, CIERA NEDOROSKI, BAILEY
POLSIN, RYAN
PIOTRASCHKE, BELLA
ROBERTSON, PIPER
SONDREAL, and TRINITY
VANG
MEET A STUDENT: AMIRAH RAZMAN
Amirah Razman has been a budding journalist since sixth grade.
❙ INTERVIEW BY REGAN CARTER
In sixth grade, Amirah Razman’s (B.A. ’24) teacher asked her class to share a current event every week. She learned from that moment that she enjoyed talking about other people’s stories. She would share information with the class that some students didn’t even know about. That’s when she knew journalism was her calling.
Q What has been your favorite part of your experience at the Hubbard School?
A My favorite part of my experience has been the hands-on experiences I’ve been getting in some of my classes. For example, I got to work with cameras, interview officials from the Twin Cities, report for social media, and maintain a blog as part of in-class activities. I also love meeting people within the major and getting to see them in my classes and at events.
Q Which course or professor would you recommend for other students in your major?
A I would recommend taking News Reporting and Writing. It’s a great course that teaches you about writing for the news in a newsroom-like format. You get tips on how to interview people, where to find sources, and how to write in AP style. Not to mention, it’s a great way to get clips for your portfolio. Even if you aren’t
planning to go into print, these skills are valuable in other areas.
Q What minors, internships, or activities are you pursuing outside of your major? How do you think these enhance your major and/or your future career plans?
A I am a reporter and manager of the Content Diversity Board at the Minnesota Daily and have participated in a micro-internship at the Park Bugle. I am also involved within the multicultural community through being a member of Delta Phi Omega, a multicultural sorority on campus, and attending multicultural events. Through my involvement, I have learned to be open-minded with people’s experiences and perspectives, which I think is an important quality to have as a journalist who will have to report on different stories and different perspectives.
Q What advice do you have for future Hubbard School students?
A Take advantage of everything the Hubbard School has to offer—they
“Take advantage of everything the Hubbard School has to offer—they don’t simply offer classes for you to take.”
don’t simply offer classes for you to take. They host career events and discussions centered around a Hubbard School major and also have lots of student organizations that you can join. I think these opportunities are beneficial and provide a lot of insight. They will help you discover your passions within your major and teach you everything you need to know about the industry.
Q What is one aspect of your major that has surprised you?
A I was surprised with how much you can do with your major. Even if you’re not set on a certain career path, you can take a variety of classes within your major that talk about a variety of topics and teach you different skills. All of the skills you can learn in your classes can be showcased in other ways (for example, having multimedia skills could be helpful in roles involving content creation, directing, etc.) or be useful to have in your pocket when the time comes.
Q What do you wish you had known about your career path before now?
A I wish I had known that interviewing people is not always going to be easy—people are not always reachable via email or social media, so sometimes you will have to go to other means to contact sources.
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Hubbard students continue to engage beyond the classroom.
BY REGAN CARTER
MLK IMMERSION EXPERIENCE
FOR MANY STUDENTS, SPRING BREAK HOLDS THE PROMISE of much-needed rest mixed with some fun socialization. For a select group of students, however, the week-long break from a regular class schedule meant much more. This past March, Alec Zadra (firstyear Journalism major) and Calli Hadler (third-year Journalism major) embarked on a seven-day tour around the Southern United States as part of the MLK 3000 Immersion Experience. The three-credit course taught students an in-depth history of the Black freedom movement, culminating in a trip over spring break to visit historical sites and figures. Zadra and Hadler were asked to provide daily reporting on the sites and places they visited. Hadler, who created informational videos regarding their journey, took the assignment as a learning opportunity. She admits that prior to this she didn't have a lot of multimedia experience. She’s proud that she developed her editing, filming, and on-camera interviewing skills.
The group spent time in Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Zadra, who wrote about their expeditions, enjoyed being both a student and a reporter. “Learning while reporting helped me get more comfortable in the process of being a journalist,” Zadra said.
For both students, being part of the experience changed their perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement. “It was really interesting,” said Hadler, “to visit these historical places and talk with these people who gracefully shared their lived stories with us to help us better understand the history of our country.”
GOLDEN GOPHER WINS BRONZE
OUR GOLDEN GOPHERS CONTINUE TO ACHIEVE both in and out of the classroom! At the 2024 Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championship held in Geneva, Ohio, this past February, Strategic Communication major Maja Maunsbach took home a bronze medal in the Women’s 60m Hurdles event. With a time of just 8.14 seconds, Maunsbach’s run was within a hairbreadth of the University’s record.
Maunsbach is grateful for her experiences in school and on the track. “Being a student-athlete is the most rewarding thing I have ever done,” she said. “It makes me a better person.”
SOLVING A HOUSING CRISIS
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE A PROBLEM IN YOUR COMMUNITY? For Katie Smithberg, the answer is simple: you help solve it. Last year, the management of the new Identity apartment building in Dinkytown charged tenants their first month’s rent before informing them that their apartments were not yet suitable to inhabit. Frustrated by a lack of options, some tenants felt helpless. Smithberg, the Local Government Affairs Coordinator for the Undergraduate Student Government, took the problem to the city council. Through her student advocacy efforts, as well as
the input of tenants, local community members, and fellow USG members, Minneapolis officials passed a pre-lease renters protections ordinance that allows renters to leave leases if their living quarters are not fully constructed by the agreed-upon move in date.
Smithberg was immensely proud of the outcome. “Even though it wasn’t going to fix the current situation,” she said, “it was going to make sure something like this didn’t happen in the future.”
As a double major in the College of Liberal Arts, Smithberg often feels her studies go hand-in-hand in both her academic and professional life.
“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to study both Strategic Communication and Political Science,” she said. “They’re two of my biggest interests, and they get tied together in nearly everything I do.”
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: KATE NELSON
After a personal discovery, Kate Nelson shifted her work to focus on Indigenous stories.
❙ INTERVIEWED BY
KATIE DOHMAN
Kate Nelson (B.A. ’07) is a woman who has always projected competence and polish: A longtime Twin Cities media fixture, she’s respected, intelligent, stylish, a leader. But like most stories, there’s the part the world sees, and then the other part, which is always full of more complexities.
NELSON WORKED IN AND AROUND THE MEDIA, plus a detour into a self-described dream job as an executive director for the nonprofit This Old Horse (she’s a devoted equestrian), eventually working her way into the Editor-in-Chief role at Artful Living, an oversized glossy, largely focused on lifestyle topics: homes, retail, and arts and culture. By many journalists’ definition, she had Made It, winning prestigious awards and looking good doing it. Then in 2012, Nelson went through a personal upheaval: She discovered that the father she had known as her own was not her biological father—through an email from her mother, from whom she’d been estranged.
That news revealed far more than just her biological father’s name: It revealed that she was Tlingit (Alaska Native). “While this sudden disclosure validated my lifelong feelings of otherness— having grown up in rural northern Minnesota as an olive-skinned, dark-eyed, chubby-cheeked
“I’ve learned so much from a lot of these people who I have profiled or spoken with, not just about their lives and Indigenous history, but also about how you tell these stories in a way that’s meaningful.”
kid attempting to blend into an ocean of blonde-haired, blue-eyed classmates—it also completely shattered my precarious sense of self,” she wrote in a 2023 piece for The Guardian about salmon fishing in Alaska and exploring her newly discovered identity. In the end, she concluded: “I navigate a new existence as the person I have always been: a strong Tlingit woman who comes from a long line of strong Tlingit women.”
But it has been a years-long evolution, and it affected her relationship to her high-profile job. “After I got over the anxiety and
excitement of having my story out in the world, it proved to me I was ready as I was ever going to be to fully dedicate myself to Indigenous content.”
What followed was a whirlwind— she thought she’d have downtime to consider her next steps, but inbound requests for more Indigenous-focused freelance stories and full-time work poured in even as she kept her editorship going at Artful Living. It was a pace that she finally realized last year she could not sustain.
“I had to really establish for myself the hierarchy of the type of content I want to be creating,” she said. “For me, the highest use of my skills is covering Indigenous topics. From there, it’s amplifying marginalized voices or groups, especially in the Twin Cities, which has a rich multicultural community.” She isn’t leaving behind all the things she loved about Artful Living, where she’s still an editor at large: She still loves covering lifestyle topics, such as her features on Sean Sherman, the James Beard Award-winning Indigenous head chef at Minneapolis restaurant Owamni. And she’s learning to take care of herself while still sitting with and writing about the often
traumatic, devastating things that have happened, and continue to happen, to Indigenous people.
She notes her experience talking to Sterlin Harjo of Reservation Dogs, a smash TV show about Indigenous people as “a prime example” of the complexity of Indigenous life. “There is trauma and heartbreak, but also joy and humor, and nothing’s one-dimensional,” she said. “I’ve learned so much from a lot of these people who I have profiled or spoken with, not just about their lives and Indigenous history, but also about how you tell these stories in a way that’s meaningful, and how you can find the joy and still take care of yourself.”
Her new work focus feeds her “ever-evolving worldview” and vice versa, and lends a deeper meaning, too—not just to her Native American audience, but also other demographics, who may need exposure to or education on these issues. Her senior thesis at the j-school focused on the idea of whether journalistic objectivity really exists, or is a reasonable expectation for human beings.
“Can I be 100 percent objective? No. Does that mean for some reason the content I’m creating is less legitimate? Also no,” she said. “But for so long, the ongoing effects of colonialism have been poorly communicated, misunderstood, ignored, and hidden. If I can bring light to some of those issues for people who might want to know about it, but are unsure how to learn, then to me, I’m doing my job. It’s about how we educate more people and hopefully, they feel compelled to do something about it.”
ALUMNI NEWS
KENDAL ALDRIDGE (M.A. ’23) is a digital media and communications associate at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C.
MEGAN BORMANN (B.A. ’22) is a public relations specialist at Haberman.
JON COLLINS (B.A. ’06) was named a 2025 Nieman Fellow, selected to study two semesters at Harvard University. Jon is a senior reporter covering the future of public safety for MPR News and will examine how traditional policing policies disproportionately target the poor and why economic disparities are widening in the U.S.
HANNAH CONSTABLE (B.A. ’23) is earning her master’s of education in sports management at the University of Minnesota. She is a marketing and social media intern at The Dillon Group.
JOHN CRONIN (B.A. ’21) is producing Good Sports, a film about youth sports in the St. Paul area, based on the childhood experience of Cronin and his fellow producers.
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PETER DIAMOND (B.A. ’16) received a national award from the City & Regional Magazine Association. He won Best E-Newsletter for Mpls. St.Paul magazine’s 12 Days of the State Fair e-newsletter. Diamond was a finalist twice prior for the Best E-Newsletter award for the year-round daily e-newsletter, Daily Edit, and leads digital operations for Mpls.St.Paul.
ALEXIS HANSEN (B.A. ’24) is a marketing specialist at Grand Living.
MYA JOHNSON (B.A. ’22) was promoted to senior social media manager at The Social Lights. She also volunteers with Ad 2 Minnesota’s Women’s Leadership panel.
HANNAH JONES (B.A. ’24) is a project management intern at Carmichael Lynch.
ETHELIND KABA (M.A. ’22) was named in the Twin Cities Business 100 list of people in Minnesota most “likely to make news and drive change in the year ahead” for 2024. She works for the Ann Bancroft Foundation.
BRYANA KING (B.A. ’24) is an account leadership intern at Fallon.
CAROLINE LEE (B.A. ’24) is a cast member on the Disney College Program with the Walt Disney Company.
AUDRY LINK (B.A. ’24) is an account service intern at broadhead.
RYAN MAY (B.A. ’00) received the Donald G. Padilla Community Excellence Award from the Minnesota chapter of the Public Relations Society of America during the PRSA Classic Awards in May.
ALEYA MILLER (B.A. ’24) is a performance marketing intern at broadhead.
LARISSA MILLES (B.A. ’20) is a writer/ editor for the University of Minnesota Foundation.
SAM MIMS (B.A. ’24) is an account management intern at Osborn Barr Paramore.
NIKKOLE MOREFIELD (B.A. ’24) is an assistant account executive at Colle McVoy.
LAUREN MYHRA (B.A. ’18) is an SEO Specialist at Windmill Strategy.
TYREL NELSON’s (B.A. ’03) book, Travels and Tribulations won second place for both Travel and Multicultural, Multilingual, and Bilingual Books in the 2023 Outstanding Creator Awards Clash of Champions. It earned third place for Biographies/Autobiographies/Memoirs
and received an Honorable Mention for Best Moment as well.
SADA REED (B.A. ’03; M.A. ’11) received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in sports journalism to Denmark for the 2024-2025 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Reed is an associate professor in Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix.
POOJA SINGH (B.A.’24) begins her master’s degree in marketing at the Carlson School of Management this fall.
SUZANNE SOBOTKA (M.A. ’11) was named in the Twin Cities Business 100 list of people in Minnesota most “likely to make news and drive change in the year ahead” for 2024. She is a legislative liaison for the city of Minneapolis.
ALEX WEST STEINMAN (B.A. ’11) was recognized as a 2024 Women in Business honoree by the Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal. The award highlights exceptional women leaders forging paths in their respective fields.
REBECCA SWENSON (M.A. ’05, Ph.D. ’12) received the NACTA Educator Award from the North American Colleges & Teachers of Agriculture organization, which recognizes individuals whose efforts represent the very best in agricultural higher education across the country.
BRENNA TIPKA (B.A. ’24) is digital marketing specialist at Our World Shops, Inc.
EMMA TROHA (B.A. ’24) starts her master’s degree in mass communication at the Hubbard School in the fall.
MADELINE UPSON (B.A. ’24) is a summer intern with the Los Angeles Chargers.
MONICA WITTSTOCK (M.A. ’20) is director of communications at the University of Minnesota Law School.
BONNIE YOUNG (B.A. ’24) is a copywriter intern for JT Mega.
JUSTIN GOETZ (B.A. ’23), GINA MOLINA (B.A. ’23), KATE PROM (B.A. ’23), YESIMA SEGHEN (B.A. ’23) and BEN VILLNOW (B.A. ’23) took Bronze in the StudentConsumer Campaign during AdFed's The Show, an advertising competition between the biggest and brightest in the industry. The event took place on March 1, 2024 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.
ALUMS PUBLISH BOOKS
KEVIN ALLENSPACH (B.A. ’92) wrote Mirage of Destiny: The Story of the 1990-91 Minnesota North Stars, a diary of the season where the team came closest to winning the Stanley Cup (Allenspach was a PR intern for the team during the season). The second half of the book is a where-are-they-now for every player, coach, front-office person and media member that Allenspach engaged with as a 21 years old.
DAVID FANTLE (B.A. ’83) and Tom Johnson wrote C’mon, Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock. It tells the troubled backstory of the 1950 MGM musical starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. It was Garland’s final film at MGM after 15 years at the studio.
ARTHUR KANE (B.A. ’93) wrote The Last Story: The Murder of an Investigative Journalism in Las Vegas. Kane is the investigative editor for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and his colleague Jeff German was brutally stabbed to death outside his house in 2022. Law enforcement arrested and charged a former county official Jeff was writing about in the killing. His book on Jeff’s life and death was published in April.
BEN UNDERWOOD (B.A. ’78) wrote A.J. Underwood: Pioneer of Print, The Story of a Minnesota Newspaperman, about his great-great grandfather who started and ran a newspaper in Fergus Falls, Minn., in the 1870s and 1880s.
32 UNDER 32
Eight Hubbard School alums were named to AdFed Minnesota’s 2024 32 Under 32 list. This list recognizes the bold exploration that young professionals in advertising and marketing do in their everyday work. The winners were: MADDIE BRECHLIN (B.A. ’17), account supervisor, Colle McVoy; ESTHER CHAN (B.A. ’21), senior analyst, Measurement Solutions, Ovative Group; LAUREN GAZICH (B.A. ’16) supervisor, client strategy and services, Bold Orange; HAMY HUYNH (B.A. ’20), talent acquisition & DEI manager, Colle McVoy; JESSICA LIEBERMAN (B.A. ’15), media director, Colle McVoy; TIFFANY LUONG (B.A. ’15), associate media director, Fallon; GRANT PARSONS (B.A. ’16), creative director, SixSpeed; and ZACH WARFEL (B.A. ’20), senior account manager, Carmichael Lynch.
IN MEMORIAM
CHRISTINE (KEGLER)
NICHOLS (B.A. ’73, M.A. ’75) died October 21, 2022. Christine began her career on the media staff of Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson and later served as deputy communications director, manager of constituent services, and director of scheduling and judicial appointments for Governor Rudy Perpich. She ended her government service as director of communications for the Minnesota
Department of Public Safety. She also was regional communications manager for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and director of corporate communications for Physicians Health Plan of Minnesota.
FRED OLSEN JR. died Jan. 3, 2024. He was an advertising executive with General Electric for many years and was a partner with Thompson, Gardner, Olsen in Mequon, Wisc. He also served in the Navy during the Korean War.
Visit Z.UMN.EDU/HSJMCALUMNI to find out how to connect with the School.
celebrate a winning goal at URW Sports Field Complex (Dome) on 600 25th Avenue S.E., Minneapolis, Minn., on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Prochaska and
play on an intramural soccer team weekly.
PHOTO BY HANNAH JAROSCH, TAKEN FOR
Alex Prochaska and Kate Diebold
Diebold
Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication
College of Liberal Arts
University of Minnesota
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U of MN Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication Alumni
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