Teaching
Courses taught at Iowa State University
Journalism & Mass Comm 598: Food & Media
Graduate students considered how culture, media, and technology impact food choices and access. Students also examined how media has been used to create change in our food system.
Journalism & Mass Comm 510: Strategies of Communication
In this class, graduate students learned about persuasion, communication tactics, and campaign evaluation. I taught this class with a service learning component, where students put together a communication plan for a client. To meet their client’s needs, students conducted original research, suggested communication strategies, and created sample campaign materials. Past classroom clients have included the North American Food Systems Network, Iowa State University Dining, and the City of Ames Resource Recovery Plant.
Public Relations 305: Publicity Methods
Students learned publicity basics. We focused on skill-building, and to put those skills in action to create a communication plan for a classroom client.
Public Relations 321: Public Relations Writing
In this undergraduate class, students created a variety of public relations writing projects. They started with press releases and moved on to blog posts, social media campaigns, brochures, and more! Students find a real client of their own to assist.
Public Relations 499: Professional Media Internship
I advised students as they completed internships. Students gained skills and confidence as they developed as professionals.
For our service learning projects in JLMC 510, students put together communication plans about sustainability for ISU Dining, the City of Ames Resource Recovery Plant, and the North American Food Systems Network.
Courses taught as a teaching assistant at UW-Madison
Life sciences Communication 101: Science and Storytelling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Life sciences Communication 625: Risk Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences 201: Introduction to Soils at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Classroom stories
JLMC 510 shares their work about sustainability at the Ames EcoFair
In the spring of 2020, a JLMC 510 student and I joined Merry Rankin, Director of Sustainability at Iowa State University, and Bill Schmitt, Director of the Ames Resource Recovery Plan, to talk about our class project that promoted composting on the KHOI virtual Ames’ EcoFair. Listen to the virtual Ames’ EcoFair radio program here.
PR 321 student on Heart2Heart Messages
In the spring of 2020, a PR 321 student promoted the radio show Heart2Heart Messages for her class project. She was invited to discuss her work on air. I was excited to join her – I love this show! Listen to the Heart2Heart Messages episode here.
PR 321 students publish blog posts about COVID-19
During COVID-19, four of my PR 321 students had the inspiring posts about college life during the pandemic, that they wrote for class, featured on the Greenlee Student Experience Blog. Find their blog posts here, here, here, and here.
JLMC 598 students share their findings
In the spring of 2021, JLMC 598 students used any research method of their choosing to answer an original research question about food and media. They analyzed social media content, journaled about replicating experiences from historic records, analyzed survey data, and conducted interviews. They discussed their creative work in this Greenlee Student Experience Blog post.
The final projects in JLMC 598 were so diverse! One student recreated recipes from a historical cookbook as part of his work.