Five faculty members arrive

To borrow a sports term, the College of Journalism and Communications doesn’t rebuild, it reloads.

To help replace the seven professors who took 72 years of experience with them this year, the College recently hired five faculty members.

Renee Martin-Kratzer and Ronald Rodgers joined the Department of Journalism. Martin-Kratzer has a background in magazine journalism, a popular area among journalism majors. She served as the managing editor of Missouri Magazine and Missouri Life Magazine, and design editor for Ideas Magazine. She teaches Magazine and Feature Writing as well as Magazine Management and Publication, which were her favorite classes to take.

“I definitely like an environment where the students feel safe asking whatever question they want to ask about the topic,” she said.

Rodgers is the “editing czar,” focusing on Newspaper Editing during his first year. He will add Advanced Editing in the spring semester, Department of Journalism Chair William McKeen said.

Rodgers aims to “create a newsroom feel” in class. “I expect hard work and expect students not to be afraid to make mistakes,” he said. In his 20-year career, he worked as the metro slot editor for The Seattle Times, as well as a reporter/rewrite editor/headline editor for The Korea Herald in Seoul, South Korea. He also lived in Tokyo for a year as chief copy editor for Pacific Stars and Stripes.

“The best thing about being an editor is that the world becomes your oyster,” Rodgers said.

The Department of Public Relations, the largest in the country with 11 faculty members, hired Belio Martinez, PhD 2005, and Janis Teruggi Page.

When he was hired, Martinez had teaching experience at the College. He taught sections of Public Relations Research and PR Writing, and served as teaching assistant for PR Strategy. Now, he teaches a section of PR Research.

“It’s quite unusual to hire one of your own graduates,” Kelly said, “but his qualifications were so outstanding.”

Martinez has 18 years of experience in public relations, including working as the director for international marketing and research with Zogby International in New York and as the outreach representative for Electronic Data Systems.

“Class will be very open to discussion,” he said, “very interactive.”

Yuan Zhang

Yuan Zhang

Teaches: TV News 1 and TV Journalism

Research: International and global communication

Home province: Zhejiang (near Shanghai), China

Bachelor’s: Beijing Foreign Studies University

Master’s: University of Pennsylvania, Mass Communication

Doctorate: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mass Communication

Hobbies: Reading and writing

Fact: She covered the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protest for China Daily

Page has 20 years of experience in public relations and visual communications. She held senior management positions with national business and consumer magazines such as Sunset and Chicago. She’s teaching Public Relations Campaigns and Public Relations Writing.

“I’m pretty exacting and demanding about what I want,” she said. “A good professor should be nurturing but firm where it counts, just like a good parent.”

Yuan Zhang worked for 10 years as a reporter, anchor and producer for China Central Television. During her time there, she helped to launch and anchor China’s first English-language TV newsmagazine. She’s teaching Television News 1.

“I encourage students to participate in projects in and out of the classroom,” she said. “I like to critique students in front of the class and in a group.”

The professional experience and education each of the new faculty members has “makes for a nice mix of new faculty,” Dean Terry Hynes said. “We really feel that we’re getting our top choices.”

          –Katie Evans