Five Missouri Journalism Faculty Receive Promotions, and the School Welcomes Six New Professors for the 2012-13 Academic Year
By Chantel O’Neal
Master’s Student
Columbia, Mo. (Sept. 4, 2012) — Five faculty members received promotions, and six new professors were welcomed as the Missouri School of Journalism started the 2012-13 year.
Those promoted to the academic rank of professor were Charles Davis, a member of the journalism studies faculty; Margaret Duffy, chair of the strategic communication faculty; Rita Reed, a member of the photojournalism faculty; and David Rees, chair of the photojournalism faculty. Barbara Ifshin, a member of the strategic communication faculty, was promoted to associate professor.
The new faculty members are:
Jamie Flink
Assistant Professor, Strategic Communication Faculty
Assistant Professor Jamie Flink has nearly 20 years of advertising account management and strategic planning experience serving national clients in the retail, restaurant and packaged goods industries. These include Sonic, Helzberg Diamonds, Blue Bunny ice cream and H&R Block. Flink developed a new brand image and integrated communications campaign for Payless ShoeSource that consistently appeared in Ad Age/IAG Research’s Top 10 for advertising recall and ranked fifth overall for the quarter it was introduced. Flink earned a bachelor of science degree in journalism in 1992 from the University of Kansas.
Sara Shipley Hiles
Assistant Professor, Magazine Journalism Faculty
Assistant Professor Sara Shipley Hiles teaches writing and online journalism. Her areas of interest include environmental, science and health reporting; using multimedia and social media; and investigative reporting. Hiles started her journalism career at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans while still a student at Loyola University and has worked at The Statesman-Journal in Salem, Ore., The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Her freelance work has been published in The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, Mother Jones and other publications. She is co-author of a book on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. Hiles has taught at Western Kentucky University and Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She has won awards and recognition for teaching, feature writing, digital journalism and investigative reporting. Hiles received her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Beverly Horvit
Assistant Professor, Journalism Studies Faculty
After Beverly Horvit earned her bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University, she worked for several Texas newspapers, including The Houston Post. She then earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the Missouri School of Journalism, where she was a faculty news editor at the Columbia Missourian. Her research on international news coverage and foreign policy has been published in the Newspaper Research Journal, International Communication Gazette and the International Journal of Press/Politics. Horvit returns to the School as assistant professor after teaching at Winthrop University, the University of Texas-Arlington and Texas Christian University.
Erica Mendez Babcock
Assistant Professor, Print and Digital News Faculty
Erica Mendez Babcock is an assistant professor and design editor for the Columbia Missourian and the faculty adviser to the Student Society for News Design. Before joining the Missourian staff in June 2012, she was a graphic designer for the Center of American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C., and a news design intern for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. She graduated with her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in magazine design from the Missouri School of Journalism.
Jon Stemmle
Assistant Professor, Strategic Communication Faculty
Assistant Professor Jon Stemmle also serves as co-director of the Health Communication Research Center at the Missouri School of Journalism. Since joining the HCRC at its founding in 2003, Stemmle has led a variety of health communication projects, and he has presented to the CDC, European CDC, NCI and various health literacy groups around the nation. His primary research interests involve health-related community-based participatory research, tailored health communication and non-traditional learning. Stemmle’s research has been published in a wide array of journals including the Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Management and Marketing in Healthcare and the Journal of Interactive Advertising. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Arizona and undergraduate degrees in history and communications from Virginia Wesleyan College.
Ryan Thomas
Assistant Professor, Journalism Studies Faculty
Ryan Thomas teaches courses in mass communication theory and qualitative research methods. He earned his doctoral degree in communication from The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, his master’s degree in communication from Washington State University and a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Swansea University in his home country of Wales. Thomas’s research focuses on journalism ethics, news media coverage of social class and organized labor, and media regulation and policy. His scholarship has been published in Journalism Studies, New Media & Society, Journalism Practice, Media Development, Journalism, Political Quarterly and the Journal of Applied Communication Research. Thomas has won a number of awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and National Communication Association (NCA), including the 2009 AEJMC/Kappa Tau Alpha/University of Hawaii Carol Burnett Award for outstanding scholarship in the field of media ethics.
Updated: June 10, 2020