What is your current position(s)? Assistant Teaching Faculty, Loyola University Maryland, and PhD candidate at University of Maryland.

What is your favorite class to teach? I have a couple of favorites but first and foremost is Media Ethics which I teach as a seminar course with a focus on exploring mass communication practices and ethics through a DEIJ lens. It is open to any student and a surprising number of students who are not Communications majors sign up every semester. As a result, the conversations are very dynamic and the energy in the room is always palpable. Students say it was a class where they learned a lot and felt involved in their learning process, and I always end up learning something new. 

What is your current research project? My current research project is finishing my dissertation, an exploration of the experiences U.S.-based women journalists have with sexual harassment and sexual assault through their work, and their advice, given their personal exprience, to develop best practices for all journalists reporting on stories involving accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Fun fact about yourself? I can cook and it is one of my very favorite things to do. If I had to quit academia tomorrow and pick something new, I would cook like I was living a real life “The Bear,” making chaos menus for days.

Will Mari (LSU) won the Dr. Dimitrije Pivnick Award in Neuro and Psychiatric History, and with it conducted archival research at McGill University’s Osler Library of the History of Medicine, in July 2023. While there, he was also an invited visiting researcher at the Département de communication at the Université de Montréal.

What is your current position and favorite class taught: I am a brand new teaching assistant professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It’s only my first semester here but my favorite class to teach so far has been multimedia storytelling. For some it’s their first experience making any sort of media in the journalistic form and it’s really gratifying to watch them grow in their confidence and capability. 

What is your favorite journalism history scholarship that you’ve worked on so far: I got an article published during my Ph.D. that looked at the collective memory around the reporting of Fred Rogers’ famous congressional testimony to John Pastore in 1969. Examining how the current collective memory of the event grew out of the contemporary reporting of the time (and getting my first experience requesting and utilizing archival material) was a ton of fun!

Do you have any interesting projects in the pipeline: I’ve begun the arduous process of trying to prepare my recently defended dissertation for further publishing, hopefully as a book. 

Fun fact about yourself: I got my start in media production (which ultimately led me here) making stop-motion LEGO short films as a kid.

Where do you work: The School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. I start in the fall.

Where did you get your Ph.D.: The Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota.

What’s your current favorite class: My favorite class I’ve taught so far as been Podcasting and Audio Storytelling. I taught that during my time at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. I’m sure that will change as I get into my new role at Mizzou.

What’s your current research project: I have two primary projects now. One is a book project with colleagues Teri Finneman and Pat Ferrucci, titled Reviving Rural News: Transforming the Business Model of Community Journalism in the U.S. and Beyond. We are under contract with Routledge. The other is a solo book project, titled Cries from the desert: Living with the loss of local news. I am finalizing the proposal now, and I hope to get it to possible presses very soon.

Where do you work: I’m currently on sabbatical during the 2022-23 academic year from Millersville University, where I’ve served as Department Chair (since 2014) and as an associate professor teaching primarily courses in communication/public relations, ranging from intro to the capstone, and including social media campaigns; crisis, emergency and risk communication; health comm and communication for school district leaders, as well as public speaking.

 Where did you get your Ph.D.: My Ph.D. from Purdue University focused on Public Affairs and Issue Management. My M.S. from Kansas State University was in Journalism and Mass Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations.