Journalism & Public Relations

Current Faculty  |  Emeritus Faculty

Dr. Oliver Boyd-Barrett

Professor, Department of Journalism and Public Relations. Ph.D., Social Science, Open University (U.K.); B.A., sociology, Exeter University (U.K.).

Dr. Oliver Boyd-Barrett joined the School of Communication Studies as Director in 2005, a position he held for three years before deciding to return to faculty in the Department of Journalism. His current research interests include international and national news agencies, news media and the “war on terror,” and Hollywood representations of the intelligence community. He was previously Professor of Communication at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, and has held various appointments at universities in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Boyd-Barrett has published extensively on educational and management communications, international news media, and the political economy of mass communication. He is founding chair of the division for Global Communication and Social Change in the International Communication Association.

To contact him, call (419) 372-6018, or e-mail: oboydb@bgsu.edu

Dr. Katherine Bradshaw

Associate professor and chair, Department of Journalism and Public Relations. Ph.D., mass media, Michigan State University; M.S., journalism, Ohio University; B.S., journalism, Ohio University.

Dr. Bradshaw teaches broadcast journalism and media diversity classes. For 15 years, she was a reporter, anchor, and talk show host in Denver and Kansas City. Her work was honored with awards from the Colorado Association of Broadcasters, the Radio and Television News Directors Association, Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Kansas City Press Club, and the Missouri Broadcasters Association.

Her research interests include the history of public opinion, media diversity, and media performance, and has been published in Journalism History, Newspaper Research Journal, and Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. She served as an officer in the Radio and Television Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA). Dr Bradshaw represents AJHA on the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC). It is responsible for evaluating journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs at universities, and it makes all final accrediting decisions for JMC programs. Dr. Bradshaw is on the editorial board of Electronic News and Journalism Educator, and she is the Book Reviews editor for Journalism History. She enjoys traveling, cooking, and bird watching.

To contact her, call (419) 372-2542, or e-mail: kabrads@bgsu.edu

Dr. Nancy Brendlinger

Associate professor. Ph.D., journalism and mass communication, University of Texas at Austin; M.S., agriculture journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison; B.S., journalism and sociology, Iowa State University.

Dr. Brendlinger teaches reporting, feature and magazine writing, international journalism and journalism in the movies, as well as courses in the international studies program. She was a reporter, photographer, farm editor and area news editor for the Muscatine Journal (IA) and wrote and edited three newsletters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked for Peace Corps (Chad and Senegal) and USAID (Indonesia and Croatia), was a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia and Slovakia, and was a BGSU exchange teacher in China.Presently, she participates in an environmental communication/cultural exchange project with schools in Tunisia and Algeria.

This year she is on faculty improvement leave working on environmental journalism curriculum for BGSU. She enjoys movies and travel. She has taught at BGSU since 1990.

To contact her, call (419) 372-8176, or e-mail: nbrendl@bgsu.edu

Dr. Catherine Cassara

Associate professor, Department of Journalism  and Public Relations. Ph.D., mass media, Michigan State University; M.A., journalism, Michigan State University; B.A., Russian studies, University of Virginia.

Dr. Cassara's teaching areas include journalism history, international press, environmental journalism, writing, editing, and reporting. She has worked as an assistant editor at The Times (Springfield, VA), and as staff reporter at The Pictorial (Old Saybrook, CT), The Journal Tribune (Biddeford, ME) and The Lewiston Sun (ME). She was also a feature writer for Michigan State University’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Information Service and has worked as a writing coach for several papers. In 1996 she worked as Assistant City Editor and Writing Coach for the Bucks County Courier-Times as part of an American Society of Newspaper Editors Knight Fellowship.

Her research interests include U.S. media coverage of international news, U.S. media history, and news media development in countries in political transition. She enjoys classical music, reading mystery novels, hiking, traveling and spending time with her dogs, Nala and Tasha. She has taught at BGSU since 1992.

To contact her, call (419) 372-2372, or e-mail: ccassar@bgsu.edu

Dr. Jim Foust

Associate professor, Department of Journalism  and Public Relations. Ph.D., mass communication, Ohio University; M.S., journalism, Ohio University; B.A., speech communication, Youngstown State University.

Dr. Foust’s teaching areas include broadcast journalism, journalism law and ethics and online journalism. He worked as a news videographer and editor at WYTV-TV in Youngstown, Ohio, where he also produced special projects. His background also includes video production and multimedia design. During the summer of 2000, he worked at WXYZ-TV in Detroit as part of a National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) faculty development grant. His research interests include electronic media history, technology of mass communication and communication law. He has written a book, Big Voices of the Air: The Battle Over Clear Channel Radio, based on his dissertation research. He also wrote Online Journalism: Principles and Practices of News for the Web, a leading online journalism textbook, and is co-author of a video production textbook. 

His hobbies include computers and cars. He has taught at BGSU since 1994. To contact him, call (419) 372-2077, or e-mail: jfoust@bgsu.edu

Kenneth Garland

Instructor, School of Media and Communication. B.A., Broadcast Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; M.A., Counseling of Psychology, Alaska Pacific University.

Ken teaches the Video Editing course in the Department of Journalism and Public Relations. He also works as the advisor for BG24 News, the semi-weekly, live, half-hour student produced newscast.

In 15 years of teaching, Ken has taught courses in broadcast management, broadcast writing, news reporting, sports reporting and field and studio production. He was a news and sports anchor and reporter for stations in five different markets during an 18-year career in the television industry. He helped write and produce a documentary that was nominated for an Emmy award. Ken also spends summers doing baseball play-by-play in the Alaska Baseball League. He has won regional awards for his play-by-play broadcasts. Ken is involved with the National Press Photographer’s Association and the Radio and Television Digital News Association.

To contact him, call (419) 372-9516 or e-mail: kgarlan@bgsu.edu

Julie K. Hagenbuch

Instructor, Department of Journalism and Public Relations. B.A., broadcast journalism, Bowling Green State University; M.A., mass communication, Bowling Green State University

Over the last 10 years, Mrs. Hagenbuch has worked in various aspects of the communications field including the governmental, advertising and healthcare industries. Most recently, she was senior communications specialist at the Fortune 500 building manufacturer Owens Corning, where she oversaw their global publication for over 20,000 employees as well as speech writing for the CEO.

To contact her, call 419-372-3409 or email: hagenjk@bgsu.edu.

Michael Horning

Assistant professor, Department of Journalism and Public Relations. Ph.D. Expected 2011, Mass Communications, The Pennsylvania State University; M.S., Communication and Media Technologies, Rochester Institute of Technology; B.S., English Education, Liberty University.

Mike teaches news reporting and news editing classes. He began his career in journalism working first as a freelance writer for a local outdoor news magazine and later as a reporter and assistant editor for The Nelson County Times (Amherst, VA). He also has spent part of his career teaching high school journalism.

More recently he has worked as a researcher in the Computer-Supported Collaboration and Learning Lab at Penn State where his work has been focused on developing and testing mobile and web-based applications that support local news and community service organizations.  His research focuses on the use of communication technologies to promote social and political engagement and the ways that Web 2.0 and mobile technologies have impacted news media. His most recent research has examined the democratic uses of Web 2.0 technologies in online news.

Mike is an avid fisherman and hiker. When at home, he can be found “geeking out” on technology of all types. He enjoys working with computers and open source software and restoring antique tube radios. To contact him, call 419-372-8866 or e-mail: mhornin@bgsu.edu

Dave Sennerud

Instructor, Department of Journalism  and Public Relations. Ph.D. (in progress), mass communication, Ohio University; M.Ed., curriculum and instruction, University of Southern Mississippi; B.S., journalism, Northwestern University

Dave Sennerud is in his third year at BGSU and teaches Introduction to Mass Communication, Introduction to Journalistic Writing and Online Journalism. Prior to coming to BGSU, Sennerud was a Scripps-Howard Teaching Fellow at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University while he pursued a Ph.D. in Mass Communication and a certificate in the school's Contemporary History Institute.

Sennerud’s research interests include journalism history as well as online journalism and new media. A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Sennerud began his career as a sports reporter and editor, writing for community newspapers in the Chicago area. He also has written for several other publications, including the Chicago Sun-Times and the Florida Times-Union, and worked as a copy editor at the Rockford (IL) Register Star. He later became a high school teacher in northern Illinois, where he taught journalism and advised the school newspaper. During this time, he was involved with several high school journalism workshops and activities at the state and national levels, including service as president of the Illinois Journalism Education Association, the state organization of high school journalism advisers.

To contact him, call 419-372-8349, or e-mail: dsenner@bgnet.bgsu.edu .

Kelly Taylor

Lecturer, Department of Journalism  and Public Relations. M.A., education and counseling, Bowling Green State University, B.S., communications education, Bowling Green State University.

Kelly Taylor teaches design and advising school publications as well as writing and reporting. She joined the department full time in August 1998 after teaching high school journalism and advising award winning high school publications for nearly 10 years. Taylor has been nominated twice for the Distinguished Instructor Award in the College of Arts and Sciences at BGSU. In 2007 she was inducted into the Great Lakes Interscholastic Press Association Hall of Fame.

Active in scholastic press, Taylor is a charter member of the Ohio Scholastic Media Association board, serving as secretary from 2007-2011. She is a member of the Journalism Education Association and holds a valid Ohio teaching license. She teaches high school yearbook, newspaper and adviser workshops in the region and judges publication writing and design contests.

Taylor and her husband, Tom, are Falcon Flames and have two children. She enjoys photography, scrapbooking and working on various volunteer design projects.

To contact her, call (419) 372-0513, or send e-mail: kellyat@bgsu.edu

Emeritus Faculty

Dr. James H. Bissland

Associate professor of Journalism emeritus. Ph.D. mass communication studies, University of Iowa; M.A., American history, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; B.A. history, Cornell University.

After careers in daily newspaper journalism and public relations in his native New England, Dr. Bissland joined the journalism faculty in 1976 and retired in 1997. He taught journalism, primarily public relations methods but also feature writing, and he also taught a university core course called “Great Ideas.” At various times he served as head of the Public Relations Sequence, chair of Journalism, graduate advisor in Mass Communication, and acting director of the School of Mass Communication.

His doctoral work was primarily in sociology, emphasizing the effects of structure on the behavior of news organizations. At BGSU, he presented research papers and wrote articles on job satisfaction and other aspects of communication work, as well as public perceptions of mental illness. His survey research methodologies included Q-factor analysis, a valuable but under-utilized approach to identifying opinion groups within populations.

After retiring he ran a small book publishing company and authored or co-authored three books on regional culture and history, most recently Blood, Tears, and Glory: How Ohioans Won the Civil War.

To contact him, call (419) 352-0984, or send e-mail: jbissla@bgsu.edu

Jim Gordon

Emeritus Professor, Department of Journalism and Public Relations. M.A., public relations, Ohio State University, 1966; B.S., photojournalism, Bowling Green State University, 1956.

Jim Gordon retired in 1991 after 25 years as head of the Photojournalism Sequence, preceded by seven years as director of
BGSU’s News and Photo Service, and adviser to the KEY yearbook from 1959 to 1981.

After graduation, he worked at The Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH), and The Star (Columbus), and was a staff photographer at The Blade (Toledo), for seven summers. During the Korean War, he was a Photographer’s Mate in the U.S. Navy Seabees. From 1978 to 2003, Gordon edited News Photographer magazine for the National Press Photographers Assn.

In 1971, he ran for mayor of Bowling Green as an Independent with Democratic support, coming in second in a three-person race.

To contact him, call (419) 352-8175, or e-mail: jgordon@bgsu.edu

Ray Laakaniemi

Emeritus Professor, Department of Journalism and Public Relations. Ph.D. and M.S., Ohio University; A.B., University of Michigan.

Ray Laakaniemi taught at BGSU from 1978 'til his retirement in 2000. At the moment, he is spending summers at 1170 Hidden Creek Blvd, in Mayer, Mn 55360 and the winter of 2011-12 at the Bentsen Grove Resort in Mission, Tx. 78572. His email is Rlaakan@bgsu.edu and he'd love to hear from you.

His interests continue to focus on weekly newspapers, with details on his book at weeklywritershandbook.com. Travel continues to be a major interest, with recent trips to British Columbia, Maine, the Everglades, the last two Albuquerque Balloon Festivals, the Four Corners, Big Bend, and Crete. He has visited all 50 states and 35 countries, including Japan on sabbatical, Estonia and the Scandinavian countries on Fulbright and Australia and New Zealand. Some of his photos are at http://gallery.pasty.com/index.php?cat=10336.

Family includes Karen (married 48 years) Certified Nurse Midwife, retired, and son Brian, MD, ER physician currently a third year resident at LSU Hospitals in Baton Rouge.