ABOUT ME

My personal experiences with natural disasters as a child in Texas as well as a greenhorn reporter in South Florida shape the way I think about crisis communication as well as how I apply that understanding to my teaching and research.

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My practical experience has been in a variety of capacities working for local and national news outlets (The Palm Beach Post, Agence-France Presse, and PBS: Religion and Ethics Newsweekly) as well as in public relations writing and editing (The United States Institute of Peace and the Shakespeare Association of America). My research focuses on crisis and disaster communication, the changing roles of journalists and strategic communicators, and the use of new technologies to share information. See my Tedx Talk about "Journalism and the Appalachian Identity" from 2023 here. 

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I am an assistant professor at the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communication at the University of South Florida. I hold a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

 

I am the former publisher of Overlooked in Appalachia (Overlookedinappalachia.org). I  served as the head of the AEJMC Commission on the Status of Women and a member of the AEJMC Board of Directors from 2023-2024.