Jargon 2017

FALL 2017

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VOLUME LXXVIII

Remembering Gary Hanson 1951-2017 Page 24

TABLE OF CONTENTS

IN MEMORY

CONTENTS 03

In Memory

A TRIBUTE TO GARY HANSON

In this issue, we explore the ways JMC alumni are leaders across industries:

In May, we said goodbye to Professor Emeritus Gary Hanson. Gary fought courageously for almost seven years against cancer.

News 04

Year-in-Review:

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Global Initiatives

Highlights, Awards and Scholarships

Ghana, Florence, Prague and more: International experiences remain a strong focus within the College of Communication and Information

Features 10

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The Opioid Epidemic

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Within the Iconic Time, Inc.

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Overseas in London

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As Partners and CEOs Across Northeast Ohio

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In Emerging and Established Nonprofit News Organizations

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Cover Story Longtime professor, TV2 adviser, global study pioneer made a lasting impact upon JMC

48-Hour Time Crunch

Faculty Research

PR Professor researches the public’s perception of public relations

“He was an influential and

Alumni News

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effective teacher and provided

William D. Taylor Award: Laura Gordon, ’87

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Fast-Track Award: Brianne Kimmel, ’11

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Sharon Marquis Friends of JMC Award: Edwige Winans

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Taylor Hall Reopening and Celebration

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Faculty and Alumni Updates

Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication 204 Franklin Hall, P.O. BOX 5190, Kent, OH 44242 Phone: 330-672-2572 | Fax: 330-672-4064 | Email: jmc@kent.edu Jargon is also available online at www.kent.edu/jmc.

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Gary was one of my mentors, someone I first met almost 18 years ago when I heard him speak at a conference. His voice (you know what I mean if you ever met Gary) was a gift, and his command of the room resonated with me. Once I heard he was able to move from the television news industry to academia, I decided I wanted to be just like him (except for the voice — that I could never emulate).

Remembering Gary Hanson

One JMC student has responded to the national crisis through artistic activism

JMC alumni work together post-graduation and dominate in local film competitions

He was an influential and effective teacher and provided exemplary service to all levels of our discipline. Gary accomplished this without ever compromising his principles and values – he was compassionate, thoughtful and maintained the highest integrity and a genuine appreciation for others.

exemplary service to all levels of our discipline. Gary accomplished this without ever compromising his principles and values — he was compassionate, thoughtful and maintained the highest integrity and a genuine appreciation for others.”

Gary is the reason I am at Kent State. I’ll never forget the conversation we had in late 2011 when Gary said I should consider applying. He appreciated my experience as a television news director and station manager and as a faculty member at Penn State. When Gary said he appreciated your accomplishments, he meant it. I hope I became a better person and leader because of him.

The final time I saw Gary was in his home, about two weeks before he died. Gary sat up on his couch and patted the spot next to him. I sat and placed my arm around his shoulders.

He rested his head on mine. I thanked him for making an impact on his students, our School and me. Later that day, I ate at a hot pot

restaurant he recommended and bought another drink at Starbucks (joining the hundred or more students, colleagues and friends who posted photos of their drinks on Facebook).

So, at the start of another year in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, let’s remember Gary’s hope for all of us, that we “continue with a sense of awe… curious… want to know what is behind the next door… to keep learning, and if you all can do that, then I think I succeeded.”

This issue of Jargon is dedicated to Gary and the leadership he demonstrated in JMC, academia and the industry that he served for more than 40 years.

THOR WASBOTTEN PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION

Thor Wasbotten, director of JMC since 2012, has returned to the faculty as professor. A national search has begun for the next director.

Jeff Fruit, professor and director of JMC from 2002-2012, will serve as interim director during the transition.

Cover photo: Alex Ledet, ’17 / Portrait of Emeritus Professor Gary Hanson

@KentStateJMC

Managing Editor & Production Manager / Christina Russ Art Director / Jared Fetters, ’17

JARGON | FALL 2017 3

JMC NEWS

JMC NEWS

NEWS FROM FRANKLIN HALL

Lights, Camera, Action

Production is underway for Kent State University Independent Films’ fifth full-length feature. Students spent the summer filming the neo-noir film, “Fly By Night,” and are now working on various aspects of post-production.

The film will premiere in spring 2018.

SPJ Names The Burr Magazine Best in Nation

The film follows two homicide detectives through a case that ultimately reveals how far one of them is willing to go for love.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) named The Burr Magazine, Kent State’s general interest student magazine, the best in the nation in its 2016-17 Mark of Excellence Awards. Alumna Neville Hardman, ’16, served as editor of the submitted issue (Fall 2016), which celebrated nostalgia and the retro revival of television, film, fashion and culture.

Kent State also earned national finalist status in two categories of SPJ’s competition: Clint Datchuk, ’17: General News Photography (large school), for his photo “Day 4 of Cleveland RNC” KentWired.com staff: Breaking News Reporting, for coverage of a civil lawsuit filed by a former Kent State softball player, alleging rape by the former coach’s son and the university’s non-compliance with Title IX reporting procedures.

Two PR Teams Recognized in Case Study Competition

Two teams of Kent State public relations students earned honorable mentions in the Public Relations Student Society of America’s (PRSSA) Bateman Case Study Competition.

Sixty teams nationwide entered the competition.

Each year, PRSSA asks teams of students to research, plan, implement and evaluate a comprehensive public relations campaign for a real client. This year’s client was The Campaign to Change Direction, an organization that seeks to change the conversation about mental health in the United States.

This is the third time in four years that a Kent State team has earned an honorable mention, but it is the first time that two Kent State teams have earned recognition in the same year. Tim Roberts, associate lecturer and undergraduate studies coordinator, advised both teams.

“Both teams picked underserved publics – college-aged African-American students and senior citizens – because their primary and secondary research informed them that these groups, historically and currently, don’t receive the mental health support they need,” he said.

“The teams’ campaigns successfully addressed that, and as a result, positively changed the conversation about mental health within their target groups.”

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Assistant Professor Scott Hallgren and Associate Professor David Smeltzer are advising the film’s production. Assistant Professor Cheryl Ann Lambert, Ph.D., is advising the students’ publicity efforts. Kent State is one of only a few colleges in the country that offers students the opportunity to produce a full-length feature film.

Photo by Eslah Attar, ’17 / The Burr staff, Fall 2016

2016-17 Hearst Rankings

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is known as “The Pulitzer Prize” of collegiate journalism. This year, JMC earned several top-10 and top-20 intercollegiate national honors: 16th in the overall competition 10th in photojournalism 13th in both broadcasting and multimedia 20th in writing

Scholar Program pairs the highest achieving high school seniors entering JMC with a benefactor who provides a scholarship and mentorship during the student’s four years.

Promising Scholars from the first cohort will graduate this academic year: Jacob Brown, Kiana Duncan, Latisha Ellison, Ava Moss, Benjamin Orner, Kelly Powell, Kurt Spaetzel, Rachel Stevenson and Davy Vargo.

Among these scholarships are 20 Promising Scholar Awards. The Promising

KSU’s Highest Teaching Honor

Associate Professor Jan Leach earned Kent State’s highest teaching honor, the Distinguished Teaching Award, in 2016. Each year the Kent State Alumni Association solicits Kent State alumni for nominations for the award.

They received 325 nominations in 2016, and Leach was one of three winners.

Examining Rolling Stone’s History

This fall, Kent State students are studying Rolling Stone’s 50-year history through the JMC special topics course, “Rolling Stone @ 50: Music, Movements and Media.” The course, taught by Stephanie Danes Smith, assistant professor and alumna, includes a partnership with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Smith has been in talks with some of Rolling Stone’s iconic staff members – including founding publisher Jann Wenner – to coordinate Skype-in sessions.

JMC Awards $300,000+ in Scholarships

JMC once again surpassed last year’s total for the amount of scholarship money awarded to students.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT …

“This is like the Pulitzer Prize,” she exclaimed as she received the news.

Individually, JMC students were named among the nation’s top 20: Ben Orner, ’18, earned ninth place in television broadcast news Graduate student Nick Buzzelli placed 10th in the personality/profile writing category Eslah Attar, ’17, and Andrea Noall, ’17, placed among the top 20 in the picture story/ series category Alumnus Ian Flickinger, ’16, and Kiana Duncan, ’18, placed among the top 20 in the multimedia competition.

Photo by Amrita Datta,’19 / The Meeker family joined student recipients of the David A. Meeker Endowed Scholarship for the annual JMC Scholarship Dinner and Awards Ceremony on May 4, 2017.

Photo by Samantha Girdler, ’19

The course will cover Rolling Stone’s origins and the birth of rock journalism; the connections between music, movements and media; and how the magazine has created and sustained passionate audience engagement and social

influence for five decades. Students will also examine the rewards, risks and implications of the magazine’s cutting-edge investigative reporting.

Public Relations Program Receives Certification

Kent State’s undergraduate public relations program joined a select group of about 40 colleges around the world holding official certification from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). PRSA officially granted Kent State Certification in Education for Public Relations (CEPR) at the organization’s international conference in October 2016.

With the CEPR endorsement, Kent State earned distinction as the only institution in Ohio to house a PRSA-certified public relations program within a school with accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC).

The certification report praised the program’s professional emphasis and its high career and graduate school placement rate – 82.5 percent within the strategic communication field – for Kent State public relations majors within the first year after graduation.

Photo by Jeff Glidden / Staff from the Alumni Association surprised Associate Professor Jan Leach as she was teaching Ethics and Issues in Mass Communication to share the news of her honor, the Distinguished Teaching Award.

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Review information, and click finish.

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JMC NEWS

JMC NEWS

Photo by Stefanie Moore / The Global Ad and PR course (Spring 2017) enjoys breathtaking views from the London Eye in a capsule high above the River Thames.

GOING GLOBAL College of Communication and Information Focuses in on Opportunities for Students to Gain Global Experiences By: Keri Richmond, ’17

Leaving the comforts of Kent State and immersing in another culture while studying journalism and mass communication can be a transformative experience. As society and the workforce continue to demand increased cultural competency and global knowledge, opportunities to study abroad continue to become more available for students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC). The benefits stretch far and wide.

The “significant period” abroad does not have to be five years, a year or even a couple of months; it can be a two-week study abroad course that results in a student being able to demonstrate that he or she was able to adapt to another culture. Students who study abroad, Smith said, increase their confidence, increase their multicultural competencies and increase their marketability.

That was the case for alumna Lauren Buchanan, ’16, who participated in the 2015 International Storytelling course in South Korea.

Since 2011, more than 100 CCI students have traveled with International Storytelling to Shanghai, China (2011); Delhi, India (2012); Brazil (2013); Estonia (2014); Seoul, South Korea (2015); Cyprus (2016); and Ghana (2017); over spring break to produce multimedia stories and projects. Buchanan asserts that it

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Broadcast journalism major Kiana Duncan, ’18, chose Kent State in part because of its global opportunities, but she never imagined she’d study abroad three times before graduation.

After producing a multimedia story about women politicians in Cyprus for International Storytelling and then spending a semester at Kent State’s Florence campus, this fall, she is among the first CCI students to participate in a new semester-long partnership with the Anglo-American University in Prague. There, she is studying alongside other journalism and communication students from around the world as she takes classes in travel writing, European history, social science research methods and language and power.

Duncan hopes to travel one day as part of her career – perhaps as a travel writer or international correspondent – so this opportunity to study global journalism for an entire semester has the potential to open a lot of doors.

Assistant Professor and JMC alumna Stephanie Danes Smith was named Director of Global Initiatives for the College of Communication and Information (CCI) in 2016 to oversee, provide leadership for and expand global opportunities for students in all five schools of the College, including JMC. “We know from lots of conversations with employers, with alumni, with donors ... that (among) the things they are seeking are students who are globally competent,” Smith said. “And one very clear measure of that is: Has a student lived abroad for some significant period?”

from Kent State University, from JMC, without a global experience really is a disservice to their education.”

Photo by David LaBelle / Thirteen photojournalism and photo illustration students studied photography at Kent State’s campus in Florence, Italy, during the Spring 2017 semester.

Photography-based courses included “Faces of Florence” and “Human Influence on Landscape,” which counted toward students’ major requirements.

is in part because of this experience that she is able to adapt to fast-changing situations at her job as a producer at Cleveland 19 News.

“My experience abroad prepared me for my career as a TV news producer because it made me comfortable with the unfamiliar,” she said.

It also set her apart when she was applying for jobs and internships.

“When you’re abroad, you’re forced to figure out your way around, both geographically and culturally,” she said. “Therefore, it was easy for me to intern and get my first job in cities far from my hometown since I knew how to handle unfamiliar territory.”

International Storytelling was one of Kent

State’s first global experiences specifically tailored to communication students, and in recent years, CCI has expanded its repertoire.

Opportunities are becoming more tailored for each student’s needs, with options to study abroad for an entire semester, two weeks, during the summer months, or even during spring or winter break.

A Global Mindset

Thor Wasbotten, JMC professor, said today’s journalism and mass communication students must understand that their marketplace is global.

“Their audience and customers are going to be global; the metrics they are using to determine their success (are) going to be global metrics,” Wasbotten said, “so to graduate from here,

“My experience abroad prepared me for my career as a TV news producer because it made me comfortable with the unfamiliar.”

–Lauren Buchanan, ‘16

craziest situations (abroad) that I was totally unprepared for,” she said. “It really puts things into perspective.”

JMC and CCI work with students to direct them to scholarship opportunities that exist at Kent State and through other programs.

Wasbotten said these types of personal transformations are typical when students study abroad.

Opportunities also exist for students within CCI to gain global insight and experience without leaving the country. They include:

“They realize the world is so different, yet there are so many similarities in the human spirit, that they come back with a new way of looking at things, a new way of understanding and accepting others, a new way of challenging their own beliefs,” he said.

Globally relevant courses Domestic study away experiences, including the Washington Program in National Issues, the National Student Exchange and opportunities sponsored by Schools Study with international and domestic students and with globally engaged faculty and staff at Kent State International and intercultural events Global internships Service learning Global partnerships

Something For Everyone

“I’ve never been the type of person who has wanted a nine-to-five (job); that’s just not me,” she said. “(Studying in Prague) could be a huge factor in me getting a job that I would just be super passionate about.”

For Duncan, studying abroad has allowed her to see the reality of issues like the refugee crisis.

“In America, we’re almost sheltered from global issues because they don’t hit close to home,” she said. “The refugee problem can seem kind of abstract if you’ve never met a refugee or if you’ve never been to a country where refugees are living on the street.”

It also changed her approach as a journalist.

“Making beat calls seems like absolutely nothing, compared to walking into a room (in Florence) and not speaking Italian or walking into the

CCI is committed to offering global programs and experiences that pique the interest of students of all backgrounds; that means looking beyond the typical “semester in Europe” and forging partnerships and creating new culturally immersive programs in a diverse range of countries.

“We are going to see growth on all fronts of global education,” Smith said. “We are going to see more curriculum that is dynamic and relevant and looking at the issues happening now.”

Course topics may include nationalism, terrorism, water safety and supply and public health. Program destinations that are currently being considered include Australia, Singapore and a few other Asian countries.

Cost can be a barrier in making global study accessible and attractive to students, but both

“We want all CCI students to understand that you do not need to leave the country to become culturally competent and globally aware,” Smith said.

For alumnus Gabriel Kramer, ’14, his global experience in Estonia has continued to serve as a reminder of all of the places his education can take him. He remembers something Emeritus Professor Gary Hanson told his International Storytelling class: “You know gang … we take you on these trips to show you what you’re capable of doing in this world.”

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JMC NEWS

JMC NEWS

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2 Left: Photo by Joseph Young, ’17 / Wangjianglou Park in Chengdu, China, encompasses 30 acres of luxuriant forests and bamboo groves. It is a historic site situated next to the bank of the Jingjiang River, near the hotel where CCI Sichuan Scholars stayed during their two-week cultural exchange in 2016. Right: Photo by Austin Mariasy, ’19 / Pigeons surround photojournalism student Emma Jaye Sempek, ’18, in Florence, Italy.

Kramer is now a multiple media producer at WVIZ/WCPN ideastream, and those words continue to ring true.

“The education we get here is so valuable – more valuable than students tend to realize,” Kramer said. “This is real world … experience.

We did the work (in Estonia). We did the work (at Kent State). We can do the work anywhere.”

Building global experiences for all students will continue to be a top priority for CCI. “We want to build globally aware, globally responsive, globally responsible communicators,” Smith said.

Types of Study Abroad Experiences CCI offers two types of study abroad experiences: cohort-based experiences and individual immersion experiences.

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In the cohort-based programs, students travel with Kent State students, study with Kent State faculty, and typically are chaperoned and supported by Kent State staff in-country.

Photo Reference: 1 Photo by Austin Mariasy, ’19 / A seagull perches atop the Colosseum 4 in Rome.

In the individual immersion programs, students travel, study and live in a truly international setting in another university.

2 Photo by Andrea Noall, ’17 / Prah wanders the alleyways of Nima after a long day working in the market. Young girls in Ghana work through a program called the Pamela Bridgewater Project, an organization that provides aid to disadvantaged girls in Accra, Ghana.

Students can also choose to spend varied lengths of time abroad: Semester abroad: Students can spend a cohort-based semester or a month of the summer taking CCI courses at Kent State’s campus in Florence, Italy, housed in Palazzo Vettori. A specific set of courses for photojournalism and photo illustration majors was established in 2017. Also new in 2017, CCI has established a partnership with the Anglo-American University in Prague, Czech Republic. This is an individual immersion program, where students take courses in global communication, political systems and freedom of the press, travel and leisure journalism and more, in an international environment.

Two-week cultural exchange: For the past two years, CCI students have taken part in a cohort-based, two-week summer cultural exchange at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. The program cultivates dialogue between students from around the world and of diverse cultures through academic research, global coursework, tourism excursions and other hands-on activities.

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3 Photo by Carrie George, ’19 / Thomas Goodman, a bubble artist and street performer based in Florence, Italy, awes a crowd of passersby with his epic bubble display in Piazza della Repubblica.

4 Photo by Mitch McKenney / Photojournalism student Zac Popik, ’18, shows his pictures to students at a school in the tiny village of Bobikuma, Ghana. He and classmate Marissa Nichol, ’19, greeted the students after returning from a nearby cocoa farm.

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5 Photo by Carrie George, ’19 / Public relations alumna Gabrielle Woodard, ’17, interacts with a child in Sichuan, China, while taking part in the Sichuan University Summer Immersion Program during 2016.

Short courses: New short courses that include one to two weeks abroad, paired with several weeks of study on campus, are offered within CCI. Read more about a recent course, “Global Advertising and Public Relations” in London, on page 17. Past courses have included International Storytelling in various locations, Science Photojournalism and Documentary Film in Costa Rica and Mobile Journalism in Ireland. These courses are cohort-based.

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FEATURES

FEATURES

ARTISTIC ACTIVISM JMC Student Premieres Original Play at Akron Civic Theatre By: Haley Keding, ‘17

1 script, encourages her audience to view addicts as hurting and broken, rather than as junkies.

In Ohio, one person dies from a heroin overdose every two-and-a-half hours. For public relations major Emelia Sherin, ’20, that’s too many.

“People try to dehumanize addicts, and that’s a very big issue because they’re (people),” Sherin said. “They’re someone’s cousin or parent or love.”

After reading countless news articles and seeing graphic photos of overdoses, Sherin wanted to bring attention to the growing heroin epidemic in a new way. As a former performer for Disney Cruise Line, she chose to combine her performing arts experience and writing skills to create a play about heroin.

Sherin also chose to cast “Heroin” as a character.

“I started writing the play because the media was bothering me so much; it was eating at me,” Sherin said. “It was so much to a point that I felt like I had to do something about it.”

Emelia Sherin, Public Relations, ‘20

Sherin’s play, titled, “(In)Dependent: The Heroin Project,” tells the story of two people, Ryan and Emily, whose lives intersect as they struggle to overcome heroin addictions. The play is written as a dialogue and dance piece, meaning the characters’ stories are told through both conversation and dance.

outline, set design and a completely written scene from the script.” The Akron Civic Theatre produced “(In)Dependent” as part of the Millennial Theatre Project.

“I call this piece artistic activism,” Sherin said.

“It’s just beautiful. It’s about something people don’t understand but want to, and I’m more than happy to help people understand.”

In 2016, Sherin choreographed and stage-managed the play, “Heathers: The Musical” at Akron Civic Theatre, which opened the door to her play being part of the theatre’s 2017 schedule.

“I created amazing friendships with the people around me, and the (executive director), Howard Parr, happened to be one of them,” Sherin said. “He was not only impressed by my young age and work ethic, but was very interested in my pitch. I showed up with an

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The play premiered at the Akron Civic Theatre on Aug. 4, 2017. Sherin noted the importance of premiering her work in an area that has been hit hard by the crisis; The Columbus Dispatch reported that at least 4,149 Ohioans died from unintentional drug overdoses in 2016.

Illustrating Addiction

In writing the script and preparing for the play’s premiere, Sherin read a handful of books and interviewed 50 people to create a complete and accurate depiction of heroin addiction. She met with current and recovering addicts, their friends and families, police officers, nurses and others who are affected by the drug.

Sherin said she wanted to focus on the human aspect of heroin addiction, and through the

“I chose a woman to play heroin to act as the temptress,” Sherin said. “She’ll pick you up and force you to dance with her. You’ll fall in love with her, and then the next thing you know, it turns violent (and) she throws you down to the ground. It’s a very heavy piece, and it incorporates all of the issues you would find (surrounding heroin).”

Though the play explores heavy issues, Sherin also established light-hearted and educational moments throughout. At one point in the play, the characters attend a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and later, the audience has an opportunity to directly engage with the characters.

“I call this piece artistic activism. It’s just beautiful.

It’s about something people don’t understand but want to, and I’m more than happy to help people understand.”

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“In the end, it comes full circle to Ryan standing behind a podium in a suit, holding a conference where people in the audience can then ask questions,” she said.

Sherin said she wanted people to better understand the reality of heroin in Northeast Ohio and subsequently be moved to action. A table of resources was set up at the Akron Civic Theatre so that attendees could learn more about the epidemic.

“I want people to understand how they can help,” Sherin said.

With “(In)Dependent: The Heroin Project” now under her belt, Sherin has turned her attention to a long-term project. She said she hopes to write “artistic activism” plays annually to bring awareness and educate the community about a variety of social issues.

“I’m trying to make this a yearly thing,” she said.

“Now, the next one I’m thinking of is either homelessness or domestic abuse.”

Sherin said her public relations education has played a vital role in the development and production of this show, giving her an outlet to combine strategic thinking and advocacy.

“Kent State University has empowered and influenced me to be the best student, worker and human being I can possibly be,” Sherin said. “The history (Kent State) holds in activism has pushed me to reach out to society in a myriad of ways. … I have always wanted to give a voice to those who are unable to physically, emotionally or mentally voice their passions or stances.”

3 1 Photo by Joseph Young, ’17 / Emelia Sherin, ’20, shares information from the research she conducted for “(In)Dependent: The Heroin Project” at a forum about the heroin epidemic and media coverage, hosted by JMC in October 2016.

2 & 3 Photos by Amrita Datta, ’19 / Emelia Sherin, ’20, directs a rehearsal for “(In)Dependent: The Heroin Project” at the Youngstown Playhouse in July 2017. The play was performed at the Akron Civic Theatre on Aug. 4 and 5 as part of the Millennial Theatre Project.

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FEATURES

FEATURES

“How can we have a comedian fit into a drama?”

Lee remembered asking. “We were trying to come up with an idea that would work. … We didn’t start filming until 1 or 2 p.m. on Saturday. The longer you delay shooting, the more stressful it gets, but to me personally, having a finished script first is the most important thing.”

More Than A Weekend

The 48 hours of production are almost always a whirlwind, but to those who participate, the project is bigger than the weekend itself.

“It’s a really good entry point for young filmmakers or even just people who don’t have any other avenue,” Puzzitiello said. “There’s nothing quite like it, that there’s an open door where you are guaranteed to screen. It’s very hard to get into any other screening.”

TIME TESTED Trust, Skills and Camaraderie Lead Digital Media Production Alumni to Success in Cleveland Film Competitions On a summer weekend for each of the past 10 years, Northeast Ohio filmmakers have risen to the 48 Hour Film Project’s challenge: to write, shoot and edit a short film in 48 hours.

Through the competition, Kent State alumni and students from the digital media production major (formerly known as electronic media production) have made their talents known in a big way, as they’ve bonded over creative work.

“It’s a unique challenge in that you don’t know what you’re going to make going into the weekend, but within 48 hours, you’ll have a completely finished film,” said Dustin Lee, ’07, who was part of the teams that earned “Best Film,” the top prize in the competition, the past three years.

At the start of the weekend, representatives from each team – nearly 40 of them participated in Cleveland in 2017 – meet to receive three elements that must be included in each finished product: a character, a line of dialogue and a prop. Each team then selects a

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genre at random and goes on to produce a four-to-seven-minute film that meets that criteria over the course of 48 hours (Friday to Sunday).

All films screen at a local theater, and in addition to the top prize, teams are recognized for best directing, best acting, best writing, etc.

Teamwork And Camaraderie

“It may be easy enough to shoot a short film within 48 hours, but to have to write it and edit it in that same time period is a tremendous amount of work,” Lee said. “Your team needs to be able to communicate well and collaborate effectively, or you’re just not going to finish on time.”

Kent State grads are particularly well-suited to do these things, said Jon Jivan, ’08, producer and cinematographer for “Clickbait” and “Early October,” the 2017 and 2015 winning films. The team that produced those films (Maple Films, a production company made up of Lee, Jivan and fellow JMC alumnus Terry Geer, ’12) and the team that produced “A Quiet House,” the 2016 winner (Family 13 Productions, led by

Robbie Puzzitiello, ’13) were made up almost exclusively of Kent State alumni.

“The (digital media production) program encourages us to try new things and not necessarily shoot ‘by the book,’” Jivan said. “It makes filmmaking fun. If filmmaking’s fun, it’s something you want to do for free, which is often how we make these films. You build a lot of camaraderie through meeting people on these teams, and you want to work with them again after that.”

Amid all-nighters, sometimes-heated brainstorming sessions and editing and shooting in unexpected locations throughout Northeast Ohio – all typical for a 48 Hour Film Project weekend – they’ve learned to play off of each other’s strengths and fill in the gaps where necessary. That became particularly evident in 2015, when Jivan’s first child was due to be born at any moment during production.

“I knew I was cutting it close,” he said. “I had pulled an all-nighter (on Sunday), getting the

Photos by Matt Unger, ’15 / Left: Dustin Lee, ’07, films a scene on a baseball field for “Early October.” The film was written, shot and edited over the course of 48 hours for the Cleveland 48 Hour Film Project. Above: The Maple Films crew (led by JMC grads Lee; Terry Geer, ’12; and Jon Jivan, ’08) prepares the set and lighting for a scene of “Early October.”

And for competition winners – like Puzzitiello, Lee and Jivan – doors are opened to even larger stages: Filmapalooza, the 48 Hour Film Project’s culminating event for all participating cities where a grand prize winner is crowned, and the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF), where the Cleveland “Best Film” winner has an opportunity to screen.

rough cut of the film done because I didn’t know when this baby was coming.”

CIFF is an Academy Award-qualifying festival for short films, so the Kent State alumni faced stiff competition. But the opportunity to host a question-and-answer session and get feedback from festival attendees who had just watched their film was a valuable experience, they said.

Sure enough, Jivan’s wife was in labor hours later, and he handed off the rough cut to Lee as he rushed to the hospital. Elliot, his son, was born a few hours before the film was due.

“You learn how to do all aspects of production; you learn how to shoot, you learn how to edit, you learn how to do sound design,” Jivan said.

“We’re all pretty fluent in all of those areas, and we have our strengths. ... If something happens or goes wrong, there’s someone with the skills to pick up the slack mid-project.”

Story Is King

Kent State alumni who participate in the 48 Hour Film Project stand by the notion that a solid storyline is crucial. Sometimes, the ideas come quickly, and sometimes, debates linger into the early morning hours.

In 2016, the storyline for “A Quiet House” developed somewhat by chance, with Puzzitiello’s grandfather’s house serving as an inspiration.

“No one was living in it,” he said, “and that’s just where we decided to meet up (on Friday night).

It just seemed like a good place to be creative.

We could feed people, and if we had to sleep there, we could.”

“We’re all pretty fluent in all of those areas, and we have our strengths. ... If something happens or goes wrong, there’s someone with the skills to pick up the slack mid-project.”

–Jon Jivan, ‘08 But it turned out that the setting was also a perfect fit for the genre the team had chosen at random: silent film.

“Getting silent film was initially a shock, but … that left us open to any other genre; we could make it a horror, a comedy or a romance,” Puzzitiello said. “We did this home invasion movie, but it was very personal for me because I wanted to shoot as much of (my grandfather’s) house as I could, before my family inevitably sells it off. … When people watch it, they’re just so captivated by the cinematography.”

Other storylines haven’t developed quite as naturally. In 2015, when Maple Films produced “Early October,” their randomly chosen genre was drama. They struggled for hours to figure out how to work in the character that was required for all teams: a comedian.

“Not many people can say that they’ve screened with something of that caliber,” Puzzitiello said.

“It gives you a lot of drive to improve upon your next product and find ways to make it bigger and better and have more reach.”

For Lee and Jivan, who work full time in video production at Kent State’s office of marketing and communications, projects like this give them an opportunity to experiment with techniques that they can then apply to their day jobs.

“They feed into each other,” Lee said. “At Kent State, I shoot marketing and promotional videos for the university. A lot of times, we have to work under time constraints. … We can experiment with things on our films that I can then transfer into the videos I work on at Kent, and vice versa.”

Watch the Award-Winning Films Teams of Kent State JMC graduates have dominated the Cleveland 48 Hour Film Project awards in recent years. Watch their awardwinning work at www.kent.edu/jmc/time-tested.

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LEADERSHIP

DECEITFUL IMAGES Professor Breaks Down Public Relations Stereotypes commentary about how companies and celebrities are handling ongoing public relations situations and analyses of how public relations is portrayed in reality shows, TV shows, books and movies.

People tend to have a stereotyped view of public relations, even if they don’t fully understand the scope of the profession.

Assistant Professor Cheryl Ann Lambert, Ph.D., wants to figure out why.

“It’s my contention that there exists in the world this social construction of public relations,” she said. “Even the people who say, ‘I don’t know what PR is,’ will use the term ‘public relations’ in front of anything bad that’s happening. We commonly see this when a company or celebrity is going through some tough times. We hear about the public relations crisis, the public relations nightmare, the PR catastrophe.”

She emphasized the importance of pointing out when companies practice good public relations.

One blog post lauds the way Jack Daniel’s, as part of its 150th anniversary in 2016, revealed that Jack Daniel learned about distilling from an enslaved man, Nearis Green. The whiskey company’s history was featured in a profile in The New York Times, and the story became part of a larger marketing campaign.

Lambert, who joined the Kent State School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) in 2016, has conducted extensive research about media representations of public relations in contemporary and historical contexts. She has analyzed news media, popular culture and war-time propaganda.

“I discussed what would make any company decide to share its ties to this ugly chapter of American history,” she said. “… (Jack Daniel’s), in sharing that information, I believe avoided what could have been a huge crisis if somebody found this out. … That’s good public relations.”

She recently began working on a media frame analysis of U.S. presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, studying how The New York Times and Washington Post have portrayed her job performance.

“Even though she works in political public relations,” Lambert said, “three prominent public relations organizations have issued public statements criticizing her messaging. Media help to formulate public opinions about the role of public relations professionals.”

Pop culture also shapes opinions about public relations. This past year, Lambert was the lead author of a book chapter, “Public Relations Representations in Popular Culture: A ‘Scandal’ on Primetime Television” for the collaborative book, “Communication Perspectives on Popular Culture.” The chapter explores how Olivia Pope, the lead character (a public relations professional) in ABC’s “Scandal,” is portrayed as a “fixer.” Lambert is now expanding that research to explore how public relations is represented in “Scandal,” coupled with how Pope’s character is represented as a black woman.

Lambert has found that the stereotyped, negative images of public relations – breaking the law, lying and cheating – are mixed with positive images of how Pope approaches her work.

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Assistant Professor Cheryl Ann Lambert, Ph.D. “You’ve got some really powerful, positive images in terms of public relations,” Lambert said. “(Pope) does her research in advance, she meets with clients. … These are all things that aren’t often seen on television.”

The same is true, Lambert said, of Pope’s portrayal as a black woman, noting her senior position and ability to hold her own alongside others.

“But that’s coupled with her personal life being quite a disaster,” Lambert said. “It’s an interesting analysis.”

Lambert is also analyzing propaganda campaigns portrayed on television. In the Australian superhero show “Cleverman,” the governor of a fictional town runs a whisper campaign to rationalize his decision to keep super-humans – known as “Hairypeople” on the show – in a certain part of the city.

“What they’re trying to do is portray this group, to defend and explain why they’ve decided to keep (them) locked up,” she said. “… It’s about the ethics of (following) what your client says versus following the ethics of the profession.”

Along with her ongoing research, Lambert manages the website PRDepiction (http://prdepiction.wordpress.com), a blog and database of public relations depictions in popular culture. She offers weekly

Yet, the general public didn’t perceive the revelation as “public relations” or a crisis of any kind.

“Because good public relations is typically hidden, people don’t hear about it, and they don’t ascribe what’s going on to ‘good PR,’” she said. “It’s easier to focus on when the PR team is out there trying to resolve a crisis or problem.”

“Even the people who say, ‘I don’t know what PR is,’ will use the term ‘public relations’ in front of anything bad that’s happening. … We hear about the public relations crisis, the public relations nightmare, the PR catastrophe.”

Public relations professionals and educators can do their own part to break down the stereotypes that exist.

“Pointing out when you witness positive PR is a good thing to do,” Lambert said. “Other than that, upholding the ethics of the profession, and recognizing that because these stereotypes do exist, we have to go above and beyond being ethical.”

STRATEGIC VISION Advertising Alumnus’s Leadership has Steered Time Inc.’s Transition from a Magazine Company to a Multiplatform Media Company

The media industry has been no stranger to change and innovation in the past several decades.

Within that time, advertising alumnus Mark Ford, ’79, has been a strategic force within Time Inc., leading the company in its transformation from a magazine company to a multimedia company.

He now serves as executive vice president and senior strategic sales advisor of Time Inc., and in his 32-year career with the company, he’s driven innovation and revenue for some of the world’s largest media brands.

“It all starts with a long-term vision,” Ford said, “which often leads to a change in overall strategy.

You must constantly adapt your business model based on the changing consumer behavior.”

This mantra guided Ford as he led several divisions of Time Inc., including serving as chief revenue officer and running the news group (TIME, Fortune and Money), the sports group (including Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine) and Time4Media (a group of enthusiast brands, magazines and experiential marketing).

When leading the sports group and Time4Media, Ford’s strategy involved distributing content through brands and multiple platforms, delivering not only content but products and services to passionate customers.

“I always felt we should deliver brands and content to consumers when they want it, how they want it and on whatever device or platform in which they want to consume it,” he said.

“Why do you have to deliver that message only through a magazine? Why be limited to print, when consumers are consuming through social media channels, mobile and video?”

One of the many success stories was the acquisition of Golf.com in 2004. The acquisition made Time Inc. the category leader in golf both with consumers and advertisers.

“Golf.com was a big game-changer,” Ford said.

“Suddenly, Golf Digest, our number one

competitor was just a magazine, and Golf Magazine had begun its quest to become a multi platform brand.”

A more recent success story is the Foundry, Time Inc.’s native studio that produces branded content for advertising partners. The Foundry leverages Time Inc.’s first party data, consumer knowledge and editorial know-how to target the right customers with the right message.

Through it all, Ford has believed in the importance of leadership through change and building the right team.

“Strategy is not enough; you need the right talent,” Ford said. “Once you have the right strategy in place, you need the best talent to execute. I always believe in a mix of unlocking talent with existing staff by inspiring (them) with new strategies, and blending in new talent who bring fresh ideas and expertise.”

business majors to put together a campaign for Wella Balsam shampoo as part of the American Advertising Federation’s national competition.

While they didn’t win, they competed in the national finals in Washington, D.C., which led to many team members’ first post-grad work opportunities.

“The competition gave me the self-assurance I needed to cold call the CEO of J. Walter Thompson, which led to my first job in the media department of J. Walter Thompson,” Ford said. “… Through being with professionals at that level, presenting to them and networking at the conference, it was a real-world opportunity which boosted my confidence and gave me the grit to start knocking on doors. Kent State and J. Walter Thompson were a launching pad on a long-standing career.”

Ford looks back fondly on his time at Kent State.

He said one experience especially stands out: He worked with a team of advertising and

JARGON | FALL 2017 15

LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

Golden Flashes Meet Abroad

THE POWER OF YES JMC Alumna Has Shaped Ketchum’s Global Impact

Denise Kaufmann, ’86, has always believed in saying, “yes.”

The power of that single word has steered her career through Ketchum, one of the world’s largest public relations agencies.

Today, she is partner and CEO of the agency’s London office. More than 20 years of experience shapes the way she leads her 240 diverse employees. Whether crafting communication plans that will be consumed by multiple cultures or leading employees outside the United States, Kaufmann said succeeding in a global marketplace comes down to trusting colleagues and listening with intention.

“You have to trust your colleagues and your clients to be able to really guide you about what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate,” she said.

As an advertising student at Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC), Kaufmann pictured herself working at a big agency in New York City or Chicago, but never internationally. That changed in 1997 when she was offered a job at Ketchum to run the Lions Club International account in 18 countries. She was based in Chicago (her home at the time), but traveled internationally for about six months out of the year.

“I had no international experience at that point,” she said. “But it was just one of those steps in your life where you know, ‘This is the perfect, right thing for me.’”

She took a leap of faith, said, “yes,” and it turned out to be a humbling experience that would shape the rest of her career.

At every turn, she realized the differences from country to country, sometimes coming to terms with the fact that she, “had no idea about how things worked.” For example, when working on Lions World Sight Day, an initiative to eradicate preventable forms of blindness in conjunction with the United Nations, Kaufmann came face-to-face with the nuances of implementing an integrated communications campaign in countries with free media versus

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One of the stops on their nine-day trip was Ketchum, where they met fellow Kent State alumna and Ketchum London CEO Denise Kaufmann, ’86.

state-controlled media.

“(Students) were ecstatic,” Moore said. “They were thrilled to see Kent State’s reach, and they were so proud of their School and the fact that they could potentially do what she was doing.”

After four years of traveling the globe, Kaufmann transitioned into a role based in Hong Kong, where she worked on Ketchum’s FedEx account and served as the head of client services for greater China.

On their visits to agencies, students were researching the similarities, differences and relative satisfaction of work experiences of young advertising and public relations professionals in the United States compared with those in the United Kingdom, specifically London.

“It was really an interesting experience,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was changing, but I was. I was listening and really paying attention to what makes people happy in a region, what people were responding to.”

When she was promoted to Ketchum’s global account director for FedEx a few years later, she returned to a home base in the United States. But as she led an overarching communications strategy for FedEx across 13 countries, continuing to travel frequently, she constantly drew from her experiences living and working abroad. Through Kaufmann’s work with FedEx and Lions Club International, two of Ketchum’s first truly global clients, her work made a lasting impact as the agency continued to build a solid network of global businesses. “(FedEx) pushed us to be a better agency, creatively and also structurally, in terms of … delivering a consistent customer experience,” she said. “We took a page out of their book, in that it was really important for us to ensure that our customers had an excellent experience with Ketchum no matter where they were in the world.”

Seven years ago, Kaufmann moved to London to work on Ketchum’s Philips Lighting account, and in 2013, she became CEO of Ketchum London. By then a seasoned traveler, Kaufmann expected the transition to London – a city that shared her native language – would be easier than adapting to life in Hong Kong or hopping from country to country for business. It turned out to be the opposite.

“I think that sometimes when you move to a country that shares a common language, you assume that a lot of the cultural norms you know as an American will take root,” Kaufmann said. “It’s not like that at all. It’s culturally extremely different, in terms of how people

In March 2017, 18 Kent State students, accompanied by JMC associate professors Stefanie Moore and Evan Bailey, toured advertising and public relations agencies throughout London for the study abroad course “Global Ad and PR.”

Denise Kaufmann, ‘86

Photo by Stefanie Moore / Global Ad and PR students had the opportunity to tour Ketchum London.

Ketchum is one of the largest global public relations agencies.

A few key differences rose to the top. For example, agencies in the United Kingdom have more training programs for new employees, and work spaces tend to be more open and collaborative between junior employees and their supervisors.

Employees in the United Kingdom also spend more time socializing with each other outside of work, according to the students’ research.The research students conducted is part of an initiative led by Marcus Thomas LLC. The final project will be a resource for other agencies in both countries, as they seek to attract, train and retain Millennials.

Read more at kentstateinlondon.weebly.com.

interact, in terms of how people deal with confrontation.”

But after developing a support network and continuing to listen with intention, Kaufmann said it’s been “one of the best experiences of my life,” as she’s come to admire London’s history, sense of humor, writ and resilience. “(My own leadership journey) has been really interesting, from feeling like I couldn’t tread too heavily, and then realizing that I had to do my job,” she said. “… I try to bring all the positive things about being an American – the optimism and the confidence – (to the role). There’s a certain sense of positivity that isn’t necessarily native to the British culture. It’s a symbiotic relationship.”

Kaufmann has noticed two things that remain universal in her work in integrated communications across the globe: that change is constant and that good writing will never go out of style.

“When you have that kind of background,” she said, “and when you know how to put thoughts down on paper, it is worth everything.”

Omniwomen: Inspiring Women Leaders Across the Globe Denise Kaufmann, ’86, partner and CEO of Ketchum London, has played an important role in implementing Omniwomen in the United Kingdom. Omniwomen, an initiative led by Omnicom Group (which owns Ketchum and about 1,500 agencies and parent companies), brings together senior women leaders in an open and supportive environment for networking and learning.

As a senior executive, Kaufmann mentors other women leaders and hosts “basecamps” about issues women face in the workplace, from succeeding at the negotiating table to taking time away from one’s career to start a family. The initiative reaches about 1,000 women a year in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

“I’m very passionate about making sure that we’re giving back to young women who are trying to figure it out,” she said.

Denise Kaufmann, ’86, stands with the staff of Ketchum London on the office’s rooftop, with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background.

JARGON | FALL 2017 17

LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

ROOTED IN KENT Six Northeast Ohio leaders share their journeys from Kent State to company president, CEO, business owner, partner. For many of them, their success is rooted in the basic principles of mass communication they learned as JMC students.

By: Arkayla Tenney-Howard, ‘19 began working at State and Federal Associates in 1983, and after 10 years of hard work, she bought her department, moved it to Akron, Ohio, and changed the name to State and Federal Communications.

Through her success, Bartz remains connected to Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) by helping new professionals build confidence to dive into their careers, just as she did.

Elizabeth Bartz, ’80, M.A., ’82, began building her leadership qualifications as a Kent State University public relations student.

Today, she continues to make Elizabeth Bartz, ’80, time for Kent State M.A., ’82 “because I feel you • President and CEO, have to give back,” State and Federal she said. As she Communications, Inc. was honing her • Akron, Ohio writing, • 39 employees presentation and interpersonal skills as a student, she was surrounded by people who positively influenced her, shaping her into the woman and leader she is today.

“Leadership is taking responsibility,” Bartz said she learned from her mentors.

From Kent State, Bartz moved on to work at WKSU, and she then received her master’s degree in political science from Kent State.

Then, she went to Washington, D.C., to work for Campaigns & Elections magazine. She

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In particular, Bartz focuses on making students review their writing. She explained that attention to detail is the most essential part of their writing.

“Students need to work on their writing skills all the time, so it is strong,” said Bartz. “Writing is a critical part of everything we do, from press releases, to all kinds of marketing content, and even text messaging on our phones.”

Her interns work in government relations, focusing on providing accurate information and community involvement. Bartz said she enjoys working with her interns because it is important to help new professionals; she especially enjoys helping young women who are trying to make careers in corporate America.

“I have always been supportive of helping other women and all KSU students,” said Bartz. “I try to work with women especially, to emphasize and highlight the qualifications they bring to the table.”

From there he moved on to Case Western Reserve University and was eventually recruited by Dix & Eaton in 1997.

AKHIA’s work relies on the organization of words, not just coming up with them.

Employees work to ensure messages are being processed through the right channels, to the right audience, with the right results.

“Sometimes you just have to go get experiences to get experience,” Withers said.

“The key is finding the environment that challenges (you) and the support of the people that allow you to do your best work.”

Dix & Eaton has provided that for him for 20 years and counting.

It took Brugler three years to settle on a major in public relations, but when he did, he “instantly fell in love with the major and profession.”

Bartz gives back by participating in the Promising Scholars program, where she funds a four-year scholarship and serves as the recipient’s mentor. She also gives back by hiring JMC students as interns, helping them fine-tune their skills.

‘Leadership is taking responsibility.’

“Our primary focus is always exploring ways to help our clients’ businesses grow,” Brugler said.

‘In any situation, there needs to be someone who isn’t afraid to organize and optimize the story.’

When all else fails, Ben Brugler, ’00, looks back to the fundamentals of public relations.

An alumnus of the Kent State public relations program and president of AKHIA, a fullservice communications agency, he relies on these basic steps to navigate the changing public relations world: Ben Brugler, ’00

• President, AKHIA • Hudson, Ohio • 50 employees

“Know your audience; figure out the best way to communicate with them; measure if what you’re saying is working,” Brugler said.

His advice follows the R.A.C.E. acronym taught in Kent State’s introductory public relations courses: research, action, communication and evaluation. With these skills in tow, Brugler works with clients to “look ahead.” His team searches for opportunities to advance, as well as for problems to avoid.

Brugler relied on professors like Zoe McCathrin and Bill Sledzik not just as instructors, but as mentors and advisors.

Sledzik knew the owner of AKHIA and during Brugler’s senior year, helped him snag a job with the firm before he even graduated.

“I cannot say enough about what these teachers did for me,” Brugler said. “This is why no matter how busy I am, I will always make time for a student.”

He continues to be impressed with JMC’s curriculum. The consistent teaching of the basics, added to information students learn about industry changes, keeps the work relevant and real.

“JMC … has always done a great job in proactively trying to grow and advance the program,” Brugler said.

“Know your audience; figure out the best way to communicate with them; measure if what you’re saying is working.”

–Ben Brugler, ‘00

“If you find a place where you can excel, don’t let that go,” Withers said.

‘Great leadership often is rooted in selflessness. It’s about being connected to something bigger than yourself.’

Dix & Eaton has been around for nearly 70 years, and JMC alumnus Chas Withers, ’87, became only the third president in 2008.

His journey to leading the integrated communications and public relations firm began as a journalism student at Kent State, searching for an internship – preferably one in sportswriting, he thought.

Withers ended up finding an internship he loved, but it was in public relations. After interning at Akron Children’s Hospital, Withers decided to dive into a new career choice.

Chas Withers, ’87 • President and CEO, Dix & Eaton • Cleveland, Ohio • 50 employees

“I really just got into it and loved it,” Withers said.

At the ripe age of 22, Withers was asked to run a marketing office in Columbus, Ohio.

Withers became a leader at Dix & Eaton as the agency was navigating the transition into digital communications. It was able to survive the shift due to continuity and the importance of its work.

“We’re involved in major transactions,” Withers said. “We work exclusively with CEOs, and we do the work that matters most for them.”

In order to do this work successfully, employees need the baseline skills, he said, specifically, being a good writer and synthesizer of information.

“Part of leadership is being able to be articulate in a variety of forms,” Withers said. “You have to paint the picture, connect the dots.”

JMC students often intern at Dix & Eaton, and many go on to work there full time. Withers praised JMC students, saying, “They’re well-trained. They’re well-educated. They each bring something different.”

While Withers continues to see great skills coming out of JMC, he also hopes to continue seeing leaders grow as he did.

“If you’re the leader of the organization, you have to be thinking about everyone else’s well-being and the organization,” he said.

“You have to take a step back and be balanced and reasoned.”

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LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

True Digital Communications crafts services and products for companies that are exploring digital services. Baldwin explained that digital marketing is about understanding what is working and why. To accomplish this, Baldwin expects creativity, which is why he created an open and collaborative workspace for employees.

‘(Leadership is) understanding: Here’s what I can learn, and here’s how I can apply it.’

About 85 percent of True Digital Communications’ employees are JMC graduates, including the digital marketing firm’s founder, Chris Baldwin, ’94.

Chris Baldwin, ’94

• Principal, True Digital Communications • Bedford Heights, Ohio • 13 employees

“JMC prepared me with a very rigorous and fantastic PR program,” said Baldwin.

It was in his JMC classes that Baldwin learned the art of developing messages for key audiences. He said that the JMC students he hires as interns and employees now show great knowledge of this as well.

True Digital Communications focuses on digital marketing, and while new skill sets are important, he explained the importance of knowing the basics.

“As a business owner, I want to hire people who can get up to speed very quickly,” Baldwin said. “My team members, many who are from Kent, (have) applied their knowledge and connected the dots.”

On his journey to becoming founder, Baldwin worked for multiple advertising and public relations agencies from his graduation in 1994 until 2011. He started True Digital Communications in February 2011, and the

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Most of the clients his team works with have never looked into digital marketing before working with True. When working with these clients, True employees begin with an analysis of the client’s digital presence. Then, using programs such as Google Analytics, they determine the best way to help each client.

“To be effective, you’ve got to personalize,” Baldwin said. “I want to expose (clients) to ideas and behaviors they have never thought of and make it relevant to consumers.”

With each new client, Baldwin and his team connect the dots to produce the best product.

“We’re in a constant state of learning. We will get from Point A to Point B,” said Baldwin.

“Ultimately, it comes down to results.”

“To be effective, you’ve got to personalize. I want to expose (clients) to ideas and behaviors they have never thought of and make it relevant to consumers.”

–Chris Baldwin, ‘94

From that, Squirrels LLC was born. The newly formed company honed in on screen sharing technology, bought out Napkin Studio, and Keith was named a partner while he was still a student. The company’s industry-leading screen mirroring apps, Reflector 2 and AirParrot 2, are now used worldwide in more than 100,000 classrooms and in millions of homes and businesses.

Hello LLC currently has about 30 national and local clients across industries, including consumer goods, home improvement, health, beauty and wellness, and food and beverage.

As an agency partner, Peltz puts her public relations expertise to work – and also dabbles in accounting, human resources, information technology and more.

“We hear all the time that this must be what Google looks like,” said Baldwin.

True’s offices contain mostly glass walls, creating a constant whirlwind of sharing ideas and receiving feedback. The openness of the office adds to his employees’ ability to produce the best work for clients.

“We thought nothing of it,” Keith said. “We thought, ‘Hey, we have a need for this, and maybe a couple hundred other people have a need for it.’ Then, we started getting orders rolling in for tens of thousands of dollars, and thought, ‘Whoa, what is this?’”

in each client with the team,” Peltz said. “We can approach the clients we want to and consult the whole team when we pitch a new client to gauge their interest. When we work with potential new clients, we are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing us.”

firm has continued to grow.

‘Leadership is knowing your strengths and also knowing when delegating is the next thing to do.’

Engagement of any kind typically starts with, “Hello.”

That’s how Hello Allison Peltz, ’06 LLC, an • Partner at Hello LLC Engagement • Chagrin Falls, Ohio Agency, got its • 8 employees name and how partner Allison Peltz, ’06, has approached business for the past four years.

“We’re not just PR; we’re not just social; we’re not just SEO or events,” she said. “We look at the target audience and say: Who are they, what are their interests and how does it make sense to engage with them? One of the first things you do to introduce yourself to somebody is to say, ‘Hello.’”

Peltz has been part of the small-by-intent agency since its inception. She spent almost eight years after college working for largeand medium-sized agencies in Northeast Ohio.

But she was ready to try something different when one of her former bosses, Michelle Venorsky, approached her to come on board as a partner to help grow Hello LLC. “We know what it’s like to be part of a big agency, but we wanted to approach and build our business in a different way, where both Michelle and myself would be heavily involved

“When you own your own agency … the difference is, you become everything to everybody in the office,” she said. “The biggest thing we’ve learned is that it really makes sense to have smart people around you, including lawyers and accountants because you encounter new challenges every day and need confident sounding boards you can trust.”

She also regularly reminds herself to take a step back from day-to-day work.

“From working on new business to supporting current clients and managing the team, you have to remind yourself to take a step back and say, ‘OK, what’s the vision? Where do we want to be in three years? Who do we want to be in five years?’” she said.

As a Kent State student, Peltz said entrepreneurship wasn’t necessarily on her mind, but she took full advantage of professional development opportunities offered within JMC, and that helped set her on this path.

“Whenever a professional came in and talked to our program, I just made sure I was there,” she said. “I don’t think at 18 to 21 you really know what you want to do – or at least I wasn’t 100 percent sure – but I think if you have a passion and acknowledge the passion, that kind of lays the foundation for what you do later in life.”

“One of the first things you do to introduce yourself to somebody is to say, ‘Hello.’”

‘You’ve got to be willing to do yourself what you would ask your employees to do.’

When Sidney Keith, ’11, started college at Kent State in 2007, his plan was to one day work in entertainment public relations. Being named a partner at a software development company before he graduated was not on his radar; however, that’s exactly how life played out – and now he can’t imagine doing anything else.

“This came about, and now it’s a • Partner at Squirrels LLC different • North Canton, Ohio adventure every • 37 employees day,” he said.

“Because I’m managing a business and people on top of it, it’s not just PR. … But all of the PR background – the writing, the presentation skills, the wellroundedness of the program – was a good fit for going into what I’m doing now.”

Sidney Keith, ’11

While he was a student, Keith freelanced for a small Ohio-based app development company, Napkin Studio, which had created one of the first 100 apps in Apple’s App Store and was seeing a lot of success. Napkin Studio soon hired Keith full time, and he began working with clients from coast to coast. Eventually, he and a group of three others began working on screen sharing apps and technology to make working with remote clients in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco more efficient.

Until he graduated, Keith juggled 40-hour workweeks with a full course load. It was a lot of work, he said, but well worth it when he used his income to pay for his last three semesters of college upfront. Now, the company continues to be forward-thinking and is expanding in existing markets.

“It’s stressful. It’s fun,” Keith said. “Every day’s a new challenge and a new adventure, dealing with things I didn’t think I would be dealing with seven years ago. Here I am, talking to multimillion dollar, billion dollar companies across the globe, trying to land business deals. I’m not only worrying about myself, but countless employees here and their families who rely on us to keep things going.”

“Every day’s a new challenge and a new adventure, dealing with things I didn’t think I would be dealing with seven years ago.”

–Sidney Keith, ‘11

–Allison Peltz, ‘06

JARGON | FALL 2017 21

LEADERSHIP Left: Michigan Radio staff (left to right: Senior Editor Sarah Hulett, News Director Vincent Duffy, Reporter Lindsey Smith) received the Murrow Award for “Not Safe to Drink,” a documentary about the Flint Water Crisis.

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Breaking News

Nonprofit news enterprises have broken their share of high-profile news stories, causing change in their communities and nationwide.

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Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR affiliate, broke the Flint Water Crisis story in December 2015, about a year-and-a-half after the city switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Kent State alumnus Vince Duffy, ’86, the station’s news director, led the investigation.

DRIVEN BY MISSION JMC Alumni Take on Leadership Roles in Nonprofit Newsrooms By: Haley Keding, ‘17 In 2009, Kent State alumnus Steve Beatty, ’88, found himself in the midst of post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, looking for a way to share the stories of those still affected by the storm four years later.

founded The Lens, New Orleans’ first nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest newsroom. Today, Beatty, who got his start in the Kent State School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC), is the publisher and CEO of The Lens.

Beatty had been an investigative journalist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but said he still felt connected to New Orleans after working 15 years at The Times-Picayune.

On the Rise

“We were doing great things (in Atlanta), but it just was the wrong city for me,” Beatty said.

Nonprofit newsrooms are on the rise, and journalists like Beatty have stumbled into the trend.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than 40 states have at least one nonprofit news outlet, with 46 percent of them launching in 2008 and 2009, when the newspaper industry was at its worst. Today, more than one-third of nonprofit news entities report on state-level news, but they have come to include anything from nationally recognized to hyper-local enterprises.

At the same time, Karen Gadbois, a textile artist, began a blog called “Squandered Heritage,” where she told the story of New Orleans’ environment after the hurricane, focusing on the city’s residential architecture. She published more than 50 stories on her blog about what used to be a kickback scheme, exposing a widespread misuse of city recovery funds. Her work won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and a gold medal from Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Mitch McKenney, an associate professor in JMC who has advised the student media newsroom in recent years, has also recognized the popularity of nonprofit newsrooms.

With an engaged audience and growing interest in her work, Gadbois approached Beatty, per a mutual friend’s referral, and asked him to join a new team of New Orleans reporters. Soon, Gadbois and fellow reporter Ariella Cohen

“We’ve always had some amount of (nonprofit journalism), but I think we’ve given more attention to it in the last decade or so, in part because of the supply of talented journalists looking for a place to go,” McKenney

22

said. “This kind of reporting needs to happen, and people are looking for a way to do that.”

Rather than replicating mainstream media reporting, nonprofit news outlets primarily work in specialized niches and cover topics ranging from public and foreign affairs to arts and culture.

“This allows them to be more agile and think very specifically about a narrow mission that they’re there to fulfill,” McKenney said.

With so much diversity, a nonprofit title does not reflect the kind of news produced but instead speaks solely to the tax status and financial structure of the organization. Because of their tax status and dependency on outside donors, nonprofit newsrooms are often fragile and have relatively unstable futures compared to their for-profit counterparts. Still, in a 2013 survey, 81 percent of organizations said they were confident their organizations would be financially solvent in five years.

Recognizing the important niche nonprofit newsrooms fill, Kent State alumni like Beatty have bought into the trend and have taken on leadership roles.

“We were there at the very beginning,” Duffy said. “We were there when they switched the water. We were told by state officials that everything was fine, but we continued to dig and continued to dig.”

Michigan Radio’s digging led to the production of “Not Safe to Drink,” a radio documentary about Flint’s water, broadcasted nationally in December 2015. After the launch of the documentary, Duffy formed a team of six Michigan Radio reporters who produced nonstop coverage of the crisis.

Duffy was responsible for managing and editing their stories.

Two years later, Michigan Radio continues to report on the city. Duffy said that working at a public radio station, he feels responsible for educating and informing the public about issues that affect them, regardless of how long that takes.

“We’re still covering Flint,” Duffy said. “We’ve been there since the beginning, and we’ll be there until the end.”

Duffy got his start in public radio working at WKSR, a Tennessee public radio station, and later interned with Kent State’s public radio station, WKSU.

3

1 Steve Beatty, ’88, publisher and CEO of The Lens, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest news outlet in New Orleans, sits next to a First Amendment display outside of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

2 Beatty talks with a reader of The Lens at the nonprofit news outlet’s seventh anniversary celebration in March 2017.

3 & 4 During summer 2017, Beatty participated in a journalism exchange program in Ukraine.

With long-term funding on the forefront of most nonprofit newsroom leaders, some have adopted creative methods of acquiring and retaining donors. At The Lens, Beatty said community involvement is key to keeping a solid funding base.

“Our hope is that each person who takes interest will become a supporter or a member of The Lens,” Beatty said. “We do these things to build and maintain members, and also because it’s the right thing to do by our readers.”

Despite Duffy’s love for public radio, challenges do exist, he said, especially when it comes to funding.

The Lens engages with its readers by hosting a number of in-person events throughout the year. “News ‘n’ Brews” is a casual happy hour event held each month that allows community members to share feedback and story ideas with staff and reporters. The Lens also hosts “Breakfast with the Newsmakers,” in which a community leader or public figure participates in a live interview that concludes with a 15-minute question-and-answer period.

“There’s always some concern about funding,” Duffy said. “For lots of public radio stations, you’re concerned about making sure you raise enough money to operate in the next year.”

“We want to give community members the opportunity to talk to people who they wouldn’t normally get the chance to talk to, like the superintendent or political figures,” Beatty said.

“I just fell for public radio news,” Duffy said. “I was doing news that was in-depth and covered important issues.”

Funding in Flux

According to Pew, 61 percent of nonprofit news organizations begin with a start-up grant of at least $100,000 and then move to other revenue outlets like organizational or individual donors.

4

In hosting events like “News ‘n’ Brews” and “Breakfast with the Newsmakers,” Beatty said he has established positive relationships with the community.

“One thing that distinguishes us is (that) we want to get to know our community and our readers,” Beatty said. “At The Lens, we make it a priority to connect with them.”

Leading New Orleans

Now that Beatty has been back in New Orleans for almost nine years, the reporting done by what he calls “the scrappy upstart to The Times-Picayune’s 120-year-old tradition” has made a significant difference in the New Orleans community.

“We’ve become part of the New Orleans media landscape,” Beatty said. “We’ve caused some trouble, and we’ve had some pretty great stories. We have more competition now than we did in the past.”

The Lens has since been honored in several local, regional and national awards competitions, but Beatty values his work not because of its prestige but because of the mission and service it provides to his readers.

“Nonprofits are driven by mission, and it’s our mission to inform the public to make decisions that are in their best interest,” Beatty said.

“People want to do good things, and (The Lens) seemed to be a match for me.”

JARGON | FALL 2017 23

COVER STORY

COVER STORY

‘I LEARNED AS MUCH FROM YOU AS I HOPE YOU LEARNED FROM ME’ Emeritus Professor Gary Hanson Shaped a Generation of Broadcast Journalists and Kent State Students By: Tyler Haughn, ’19

His students, co-workers, friends and family all have different memories, but within those memories, themes of patience, understanding and leadership by example reveal so much about the life Gary Hanson lived.

Left: Photo by Eslah Attar, ‘17 Gary Hanson takes a photo at Aphrodite Rock on the coast of Cyprus in 2016. Cyprus was one of six destinations to which he took CCI students as part of International Storytelling. Right: Gary Hanson advises students in the old TV2 studio in the Music and Speech Building, in September 1999.

“He had people that knew him in the broadcast professional world, and they would remember him through the professionalism in the field and encouraging the kind of storytelling that emphasized natural sound,” said Mitch McKenney, one of his friends and colleagues. “The students are going to specifically remember his individual care and attention and friendship which launched their careers. Colleagues, like me, are going to remember this great friend, with a great sense of humor, who really pushed us to do some of our best work. I think different people will have different positive memories of how he influenced us.”

The Kent State School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) community has been mourning the death of Hanson, a beloved professor and educator. He died May 18, 2017, after fighting cancer for almost seven years.

Hanson earned the title of emeritus professor after he retired in 2016. His nearly 20-year tenure at Kent State led him to directly impact thousands of students. He championed student success in multiple ways, which included starting the “International Storytelling” class to provide students in the College of Communication and Information (CCI) with exposure to storytelling in different countries.

Hanson specialized in broadcast journalism.

During his professional career, he developed and honed journalistic skills as news director at both WKBN in Youngstown, Ohio, and at KXON-TV in Mitchell, South Dakota. He then taught these skills to students at Kent State, providing them with an educator who cared deeply about what he did, as he transferred his own passion into those willing to learn from his illustrious career.

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Since graduation, Petruny has worked as a sports anchor, sideline reporter, sports producer and television host. She has worked for the NFL’s Chicago Bears and New England Patriots.

She said the skills Hanson taught her, as a professor in the classroom and as adviser in student media, have served as a competitive advantage in her career.

“Gary’s highest priority was to equip his students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the highly competitive television news business,” Petruny said.

Photo by Eslah Attar, ’17 / Gary Hanson and his wife LuEtt Hanson stop at the Acropolis in Greece, with the city of Athens in the background, in 2016. Gary and LuEtt led CCI students on six study abroad trips as part of International Storytelling.

McKenney, an associate professor in JMC, taught “International Storytelling” with Gary Hanson and his wife, LuEtt Hanson, who served for many years as associate dean of CCI. The course focused on a globalized approach to multimedia storytelling, bringing students to Estonia, South Korea, India, China, Cyprus and Brazil. McKenney characterized Hanson as an educator, analytical and careful in his assistance, who would provide guidance for students whenever they needed the help.

“He would dedicate a lot of time, line by line, in helping anyone who would seek advice,” McKenney said. “He was very generous with his time.”

Hanson was never the type of person to give up easily, and that showed as he remained

committed to his work and students while undergoing chemotherapy treatment off and on, from 2010 until his retirement in 2016.

McKenney said Hanson did not want the cancer treatment to get in the way of what he loved, and he continued teaching and living his life as if everything was the same.

“He would have a chemotherapy treatment in the morning, and then come back and teach the broadcast beat class or broadcast reporting class when he got back,” McKenney said.

JMC alumna Lyndsay Petruny, ’08, is one example of the many students in whom Hanson instilled his dedication and knowledge. During her time at Kent State, Petruny worked closely with him through TV2, developing the technical and reporting skills necessary to compete in the highly competitive field of broadcast journalism.

He was also genuine and kind in his endeavors, she said, impacting not only the professional lives of his pupils, but their personal lives as well.

“Success that many of us have found in our careers is directly because of what Gary taught us,” Petruny said. “He wanted his students to be great journalists, but even better people.”

When she graduated, Petruny said she wanted to make Hanson proud – to have her career and success act as a way of saying thank you to someone who was invaluable to her and so many other students.

“Gary always went above and beyond as an educator, mentor and friend,” Petruny said. “I’m immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to be one of Gary Hanson’s students.”

Whether from the perspective of students or co-workers, there are numerous examples that demonstrate how Hanson was consistently pioneering and inspiring leadership.

David Grober, senior director of advancement in the Kent State College of Arts and Sciences, knew Hanson before he was an educator; he worked alongside him at WKBN-TV in Youngstown. At the time, Hanson was the news director and Grober, a fresh-out-of-college weekend sports anchor and reporter. Grober recalls how beneficial working with Hanson was at that point in his young career.

“Gary was kind, helpful and demonstrated utmost professionalism toward all, especially meaningful to a brand new, just-out-of-college reporter,” Grober said.

Barbara Hipsman, emerita associate professor, taught the journalism capstone course “Reporting Public Policy” with Hanson.

She said his openness and how approachable he was with students in his observations helped him lead by example. Sometimes, the truth was important, but he was always considerate of how he worded something. This generosity reflected in his work in JMC and the university.

“Gary was frank. He was lovingly frank if he knew you were trying to do your best,” Hipsman said. “He was insightful on long-term projects both for (the School of) Journalism and Mass Communication, the College and the University.”

Both Kent State and the nation’s greater journalism education community took notice over the years of how, as a teacher, Hanson led by example, fostering a generation of journalists who are ethical and skilled in their work, but more importantly, even better people. Last year, the Association for Education in Journalism and

Mass Communication’s (AEJMC) Electronic News Division, awarded him the Edward L. Bliss Award for Distinguished Broadcast Journalism Education for his significant and lasting contributions to the field. In 2011, he earned Kent State’s highest teaching honor, the Distinguished Teaching Award, which is awarded to only three Kent State professors per year.

One month before he died, Hanson attended Kent State’s 50th anniversary celebration of the Distinguished Teaching Award with fellow professors who have been recognized among their colleagues for demonstrating extraordinary teaching in the classroom and a devotion to touching the lives of students. There, he expressed his pride in his former students and a hope that they will continue to be curious and approach their work – and life – with a sense of awe.

“I learned as much from you as I hope you learned from me,” Hanson said. “What I learned was that when you can tap into somebody’s dreams, when you can teach them not just a skill – I taught how to shoot video and all of that stuff – but I hope along the way, I taught you how to be curious, how to think a little bit differently, taught you to see the world in a different way. … Everybody that I’ve had the chance to work with over my 19 years of teaching gave me something – gave me some inspiration, and I’ll never forget that.”

JARGON | FALL 2017 25

ALUMNI

ALUMNI

BURR CO-FOUNDER TO RECEIVE TAYLOR AWARD Laura Gordon, ’87, Fondly Remembers JMC Mentors Who Shaped Her Education, Career

2 “Co-editors of a brand new magazine: it sounded so … trendsetting. How historic it would be to start a tradition of journalistic excellence apart from the daily hard news of the Stater …” wrote the Chestnut Burr Magazine’s co-editors in the 1986 inaugural issue.

They were right. Now known as The Burr Magazine, the project Laura Gordon, ’87, and C. Thomas Lewis, ’86, started as students in Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) now has a rich 31-year history of journalistic excellence.

Gordon, one of those co-editors, will be honored Sept. 22, 2017 (see page 30), as the William D. Taylor Award recipient, the highest honor JMC bestows upon its alumni.

Just as she made a lasting impact as an undergraduate by starting Kent State’s first student magazine, she has made a tremendous impact upon the public relations and communication industry as general manager of Edelman, a leading global communications marketing firm.

Laura Gordon, ’87, poses at Homecoming with a cardboard cutout of then-Kent State President Michael Schwartz. The cutout was featured in the inaugural issue of the Chestnut Burr Magazine, which she co-founded.

Based in Washington, D.C., Gordon oversees Edelman’s health, federal government services and employee engagement sectors.

Her clients include major pharmaceutical and biotech companies, hospitals, health insurers and advocacy organizations. But as a journalism major and throughout the first part of her career, “it would have never occurred to me to do PR,” she said.

Gordon realized a passion for writing about health and medicine while covering the health beat for the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. She went on to work for Medical Tribune, where she wrote specifically for an audience of doctors and other health professionals.

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“I really had to know my stuff,” she said. “I had to learn how to understand what was significant when a journal article came out: What does that really mean for people, and how big of a deal was that? It was such great training.”

Still, it took a lot of convincing for her to make the switch from journalism to public relations when Edelman approached her with an offer to oversee editorial services for the firm’s health clients. Gordon still remembers the advice one of her co-workers gave her as she adjusted to a new industry.

1 1 The first issue of the Chestnut Burr Magazine, which later became The Burr Magazine, was published in 1986. 2017 Taylor Award winner Laura Gordon, ’87, was co-editor of this inaugural issue alongside classmate C. Thomas Lewis, ’86.

2 & 3 Gordon, general manager at Edelman, presents at the annual meeting of the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.

“Stop trying to be us. Be you.

There’s enough of us. Bring your skills as a former journalist to

3

the table, and talk about what you know.”

“She said, ‘Stop trying to be us. Be you.

There’s enough of us. Bring your skills as a former journalist to the table, and talk about what you know,’” she said. “To this day, that’s some of the best advice I’ve received. I tell that to young people now. … Just because you don’t sound like everybody else – that’s actually a good thing. Try to preserve that as long as you can.”

Gordon’s experience working with clients in the health and medicine industries over the years has made her appreciate the important role journalism and communication play in building healthy communities.

“For a person who wants to educate themselves about something they have, or

a condition they think they might have, or for someone who just wants to be healthier, there’s no easier time than now for people to be empowered to find information about health topics and conditions,” she said.

“That’s an amazing thing.”

In addition to working with health clients at her job, Gordon is on the board of the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, and she volunteers with the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. She advises both organizations about their communication strategies and has participated in forums and committees with health professionals.

“The neat thing is that it surrounds me with people who aren’t in PR,” she said. “Working

with people in different disciplines to improve people’s health is very personally rewarding.”

Gordon also believes strongly in helping today’s JMC students. In 2015, she established the Beverly and Ralph Buterbaugh Promising Scholar Award in honor of her parents. The scholarship supports a top-achieving high school senior entering JMC throughout all four years of college.

“I think we have to remember that having even a little bit of a leg up can change a person’s outlook and opportunity,” she said. “I love being able to support someone who is so dedicated and energetic, embarking on his or her own career. It’s an exciting place to be.”

Carl Schierhorn, emeritus associate professor, and Tim Smith, emeritus professor – had on Gordon’s time as a student has stuck with her through the years.

“I tell colleagues and anyone who will listen about the support and mentoring relationships I had with my professors,” she said, citing Schierhorn’s recommendation for her internship that led to her first job and Smith’s “tough love” for student media staff members. “They truly took an interest. They really cared about my education – and my future. Maybe that happens at other universities, but I felt like it was a pretty special thing at Kent State. I felt extremely lucky.”

The impact JMC faculty – particularly JARGON | FALL 2017 27

ALUMNI

ALUMNI

FAST TRACK, INTERNATIONAL IMPACT

MAKING RESEARCH COME ALIVE

2017 Fast-Track Winner Brianne Kimmel, ’11, Began Career in Australia; Now Works With Startups Across the Globe

Marcus Thomas Research Director to be Honored as a ‘Friend of JMC’

By: Erica Batyko, ’16, M.A. ’18 Thomas, to help our students understand how to conduct research for PR and marketing campaigns, why research is essential and what research can accomplish,” Smith said. “Her presentations are always thorough and professional, and she is patient, accessible, candid and thoroughly wonderful in answering our students’ questions.”

During her junior year at Kent State, Brianne Kimmel, ’11, spontaneously booked a two-week trip to Australia to visit a friend who was interning at a public relations agency in Sydney. She took advantage of her time there by attending networking events and connecting with professionals. That experience fueled a dream of living abroad that stayed with her until graduation.

“As I was getting ready to graduate from Kent State, I started getting offer letters from advertising and PR agencies in Boston, NYC and some local agencies in Cleveland. But for some reason, I kept going back to my desire to live overseas,” Kimmel said. “So, I took a big risk and moved to Sydney without a job.”

Within two weeks she found a position as a digital strategist for Nikon at a boutique digital agency. She initially planned on staying in Sydney for only three months, but she ended up living there for almost four-and-a-half years. Kimmel now leads growth marketing at Zendesk, a customer support software company based in San Francisco, which serves some of the most well-known international startups including Uber, Airbnb and Dropbox. Kimmel will be recognized for her early career achievements with the JMC Fast-Track Award at an awards ceremony on Sept. 22, 2017.

(See Page 30.)

“The best advice I can give to any recent grad is (to) move to the biggest city you can handle,” she said. “When you’re early in your career, it’s important to be surrounded by people who challenge your thinking.”

Kimmel majored in advertising at Kent State.

One of the most rewarding aspects of her career so far, she said, has been her transition from marketing to more technical roles. The tech industry allows her to be both creative and analytical.

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Winans said the experience is equally beneficial to her.

Edwige Winans

Photo courtesy of Brianne Kimmel, ’11 / Kimmel delivers a keynote at Pioneers ’17, a tech conference in Vienna, Austria.

“People will oftentimes say you’re either creative or analytical, but it turns out in tech you need to be both,” she said. “I remember passing notes in math class and skipping my computer science class at Kent State. Now, most of my day is spent planning, forecasting and running database queries.”

Kimmel is currently focusing on the Zendesk for Startups program, to help startup companies build better relationships with their customers.

“A huge part of (my) role is building relationships with startup incubators around the world such as Y Combinator in Silicon Valley, Station F in Paris and Akron Global Business Accelerator,” Kimmel said. “I work closely with our most successful startups ... to share their success stories with new, high-growth startups.”

Prior to Zendesk, Kimmel led performance marketing efforts at Expedia. Outside of work, she advises tech startups and recently launched an ongoing “tech world tour” in Sydney, Vienna and Paris, meeting and coaching international

startups. Living and working in Silicon Valley, she said her career and personal life often overlap, and she has built a strong network of like-minded friends and colleagues.

“As you become more specialized in your field, your circle gets smaller and more tight-knit,” she said. “If I’m thinking through a complex problem at work, I have a network of people at other companies who are willing to share insights and brainstorm solutions.”

Kimmel has strived for consistent progress in her career by setting goals and creating a solid community that holds her accountable. She said she is honored to receive the Fast-Track Award and has encouraging words for JMC students and alumni.

“I have always viewed life as a story. When it comes to your career path, you’re the only one who can write the story,” she said. “You’ll have people that help you along the way, but it’s up to you to decide what mark you want to leave on the world.”

Each year, dozens of professionals share insight with students in Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) through guest lectures. One of them, Edwige Winans, associate research director at the Cleveland advertising agency Marcus Thomas LLC, will be honored with this year’s Sharon Marquis Friends of JMC Award. She will accept the award at an awards ceremony on Sept. 22, 2017. (See Page 30.)

The award, named in honor of Sharon Marquis, longtime business manager for student media and senior secretary in JMC, honors an individual who has demonstrated remarkable support to the School’s mission and students.

Winans has presented guest lectures about market research to students in the Public Relations Case Studies course every semester since 2014. Her nominator, Assistant Professor Stephanie Danes Smith, said Winans’ guest lectures stand out because she asks about the challenges students face and tailors the presentation to address those problems.

“She generously shares her expertise on primary and secondary research, using practical and relevant examples from her work at Marcus

“I like exposure to young minds and different challenges, and that’s what I find there,” she said. “I really like the interaction with the students. … I always come out refreshed after these discussions.”

Research methodologies and long lists of “do’s and don’t’s” can sometimes intimidate students, Winans said. In her presentations, she focuses on the basics and scalable examples that they can apply in a student setting.

“I look for things that do not require enormous budgets, that do not require tremendous time, but rather things that are achievable within their own setting,” she said. “Otherwise, I don’t believe it would be useful to them.”

Assistant Professor Luke Armour said this is a unique benefit for students.

“She not only informs them of what’s possible, but what’s scalable – that valuable research can be done at an undergraduate level and scale up to corporate-funded levels,” he said.

“Her presentation (in Spring 2017) focused on a case study that required only a few out-of-pocket expenses and agency time. The lesson was, ‘your groups could have done this research,’ and that message resonated. It’s about the creativity you put into solving the problems. And to me, that’s the engine that drives public relations.”

At Marcus Thomas, Winans focuses on primary research. She is especially interested in the

ways advancements in psychology and other social sciences can elevate market research.

“As other sciences understand people better, marketing research develops tools and approaches that are informed by these sciences, to get deeper into our understanding of people and closer to reality,” she said. “I try to bring to Marcus Thomas some of these newer techniques and approaches I’ve discovered through reading and attending conferences.”

“I like exposure to young minds and different challenges, and that’s what I find there. I really like the interaction with the students. … I always come out refreshed after these discussions.”

–Edwige Winans And as technology advances, so will careers in research, she said. The more mundane, repetitive tasks are becoming automated, and researchers like herself now have the chance to focus on strategic questioning and telling the story about what the research identifies.

Winans was raised and educated in France, so until she arrived at Marcus Thomas, Kent State was never on her radar. But through her presentations and interactions with JMC students in Franklin Hall and through working with JMC alumni at Marcus Thomas, she is impressed.

“The Millennials that we have at the moment who come from Kent are extraordinarily smart young people who are very well-prepared for the workplace and lots of fun to be around,” she said. “They’re well-rounded people.”

JARGON | FALL 2017 29

ALUMNI

ALUMNI

CELEBRATING 80 YEARS Join us Sept. 21 – 23, 2017, for the Reopening of Taylor Hall and a Celebration of JMC Ten years ago, in 2007, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) made the move into the renovated Franklin Hall.

The building’s converged student media newsroom, HD digital television studio, focus group room, collaborative classroom spaces and more have shaped a state-of-the-art experience for JMC students of the past decade.

Still, much of the School’s history is rooted in Taylor Hall, which reopened this fall after a significant renovation. It now houses the College of Communication and Information’s (CCI) School of Communication Studies and the School of Visual Communication Design, along with Kent State’s May 4 Visitors Center.

JMC will join CCI and its fellow schools in celebrating Taylor Hall’s grand reopening Sept. 21 – 23, 2017. The JMC Alumni and Friends Awards Ceremony and Reception, which traditionally takes place Homecoming weekend, and a celebration of the School’s 80th anniversary will take place in Franklin Hall, in conjunction with the Taylor Hall festivities.

Join us for the whole weekend — or for any individual event: Thursday, Sept. 21 Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – FirstEnergy Auditorium, Franklin Hall Now in its 13th year, the workshop is a one-day training program for professionals, educators and students that examines critical issues and perspectives in media ethics. It is moderated by distinguished faculty from The Poynter Institute. This year’s theme is fake news, and the keynote speaker will be NPR’s David Folkenflik. Early registration is recommended at http://mediaethics.jmc.kent.edu, but walk-ins are welcome.

Friday, Sept. 22 80th Anniversary All-Alumni Social Hour, Open House and Networking 4 to 6 p.m. – Franklin Hall Meet today’s JMC students, reconnect with classmates and faculty, or network with JMC alumni who came before or after you at our all-alumni open house. The open house will kick off with a short presentation and then the rest of the afternoon is yours to tour the building, enjoy hors d’oeuvres and network. Archived student media publications and videos will be on display throughout the building.

Alumni and Friends Awards Ceremony and Reception 6 p.m. – FirstEnergy Auditorium, Franklin Hall Join us as we honor two distinguished alumnae and a supportive friend of the School: William D. Taylor Award: Laura Gordon, ’87, general manager at Edelman in Washington, D.C. Fast-Track Award: Brianne Kimmel, ’11, growth marketing at Zendesk in San Francisco Sharon Marquis Friends of JMC Award: Edwige Winans, associate research director at Marcus Thomas LLC in Cleveland Before and after the ceremony, PRSSA Kent will host a silent auction.

Saturday, Sept. 23 Taylor Hall Grand Reopening Brunch and Civil Discourse Forum 11 a.m. – Taylor Hall The College of Communication and Information will host a brunch and a panel discussion about civil discourse to celebrate Taylor Hall’s reopening and CCI’s 15th anniversary. Registration details will be sent out via email.

More information about all of these events will be shared via email. Please follow the instructions on the next page to update your email address if you have not been receiving emails from JMC. To learn more about this weekend of events, please visit www.kent.edu/jmc/80-celebration.

Franklin Hall, JMC’s home for the past 10 years

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FACULTY & ALUMNI NEWS Faculty News

Assistant Professor Gretchen Dworznik, Ph.D., earned first place in the open paper competition for the curriculum division of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA). She is studying how journalism schools are teaching students about the psychological risks of covering traumatic stories. She presented the paper, “Are we teaching trauma? A survey of accredited journalism schools in the U.S.” at the BEA conference in Las Vegas.

Associate Professor Michele Ewing and Assistant Professor Cheryl Ann Lambert, Ph.D., presented at the International Public Relations Research Conference in March 2017. Ewing’s research on internal communication standards earned the IPR Top 2 Papers of Practical Significance Award. Lambert presented a media frame analysis of Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protests.

“The Ocularist,” a short documentary co-directed

by JMC alumnus and assistant professor David Foster, ’09, M.A., ’14, has screened at the following film festivals over the past year: the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival (October 2016), the St. Louis International Film Festival (November 2016), the Columbus International Film & Video Festival (April 2017) and the Pittsburgh Independent Film Festival (June 2017). The documentary won the Medical Division Award of Distinction at the Columbus festival.

research was recently published in the journal “Computers and Human Behavior.”

Alumni News

Several Northeast Ohio publications and organizations have recognized JMC alumni as influencers in their communities.

The Akron Young Professionals Network’s 30 for the Future Three JMC alumni were honored in 2016. 30 for the Future honors young professionals (ages 25-39) who live and/or work in the greater Akron region, who are trendsetters in their industries and who make an impact on the region through leadership and service.

Congratulations to Jennifer Kramer, ’00, Lindsay Ridinger, ’12, and Nathan Sargent, ’09.

Cleveland Magazine’s “Most Interesting People” Cleveland Magazine featured two JMC alumni as part of its “Most Interesting People” issue of 2017. Danielle Wiggins, ’04, M.A., ’09, was featured for her journey to becoming morning traffic reporter and Rising co-creator and host for Cleveland’s WKYC Channel 3.

Angel Cézanne, ’14, was featured for her creation of the feminist publication, Eleanor, which showcases poetry, essays, cartoons and other creative submissions of female-identifying and gender nonconforming artists.

Crain’s Cleveland Business “Twenty in their 20s” Marchaé Grair, ’10, was listed in the business publication’s 2016 edition of “Twenty in their 20s,” recognizing the region’s up-and-coming professionals. Grair is the digital content manager for United Church of Christ.

Jan Worth-Nelson, ’71, was featured on Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org) for her work as editor of Flint, Michigan’s East Village Magazine, one of the nation’s oldest community media outlets.

Tom Jennings, ’85, produced the four-part cable series “The Lost Tapes: Pearl Harbor,” which premiered on the Smithsonian Channel in December 2016, in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The series uses only original sources – radio reports, historic film footage, audio recordings, first person accounts, etc. – to tell the story of the world-shaking event.

Ben Fischer, ’04, covered the 2016 summer Olympics from Rio de Janeiro for SportsBusiness Journal. He covered the business side of the Games: sponsors making money off the Olympics, governance and policy issues facing international sports and breakout athletes who are on track to become future celebrity endorsement stars.

Professor Mark Goodman was elected to serve as vice head of the Scholastic Journalism division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

Assistant Professor Scott Hallgren served as musical composer and audio supervisor for Pretzel Pictures’ production of “Perfect 36 – When Women Won the Vote,” which won a Bronze Telly in the category of General Education. The documentary about the women’s suffrage movement aired on PBS stations across the country in March 2017 in conjunction with Women’s History Month.

Assistant Professor Chance York, Ph.D., presented his research linking genetics and how frequently a person uses social media at the International Communication Association Convention in San Diego in May 2017. The

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The 13th Annual KSU Poynter Media Ethics Workshop | Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 Join us to explore the media ethics of fake news with keynote speaker David Folkenflik of NPR and more. Pre-registration is available now, but walk-ins are welcome. A live stream is also available.

Learn more at mediaethics.jmc.kent.edu