Faculty News Releases Awards Strategic Communication

Associate Professor Holly Higginbotham awarded the McIntyre Professorship for Teaching Excellence

Holly Higginbotham

The award comes with a $10,000 salary supplement for next academic year.

Holly Higginbotham is surprised with balloons during a Zoom call on May 14. She just found out she is the recipient of the 2021 O.O. McIntyre Professorship for Teaching Excellence.
Holly Higginbotham is surprised with balloons during a Zoom call on May 14. She just found out she is the recipient of the 2021 O.O. McIntyre Professorship for Teaching Excellence.

Columbia, Mo. (May 14, 2021) — Associate Professor Holly Higginbotham is the 2021 recipient  of the Missouri School of Journalism’s O.O. McIntyre Professorship. The award recognizes teaching excellence and comes with a $10,000 salary supplement for the 2021-22 academic year.

Higginbotham teaches strategic communication courses that cover the principles of the field, public relations, copywriting, audiences and persuasion, and strategic campaigns. She is the director of the school’s AdZou program, a faculty-led, student-run agency that has served hundreds of local, nonprofit, regional and national clients since its inception at the school. She also serves as the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and the university’s Student National Advertising Competition (NSAC) team.

Nominators said Higginbotham’s leadership she provides to her students and the School, along with her “behind the scene work,”  made her a top choice for the award:

  • “Organized, professional, dependable, humble, dedicated, pursues excellence, role model, collegial, nice, outstanding—these adjectives are among the many that describe Associate Professor Holly Higginbotham. She gives 100 percent to everything she does, from excellent teaching, directing AdZou, advising the student chapter of the AAF and serving on various school committees.”
  • “Holly has been a central part of students’ strategic communication learning experience for a very long time. She is a crucial element in s their professional development and their move from college to the working world.”
  • “Holly is the kind of colleague who shows up, contributes, asks the right questions and follows through with whatever is expected of her.”
  • “Holly embodies the intent of this award with her dedication and love for the school and its students.”
  • “Her service to the school is often behind the scenes, but is very important for the success of the school.”

Higginbotham’s background in journalism began at an early age working summers at a weekly newspaper owned by her family. As a young journalism professional fresh out of college, Higginbotham worked at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock as a copy editor and late-night assistant wire editor. She also served as a staff writer for a national specialty magazine based in Little Rock. In 1992, she made the move from traditional journalism to the corporate communications world. She spent the next decade promoting a multihospital healthcare system with focused efforts on marketing communications, public relations and employee communication

About the O.O. McIntyre Professorship

The professorship is named for O.O. McIntyre, one of the most widely known New York columnists during the 1920s and 1930s. His column, “New York Day by Day,” was syndicated to 508 newspapers in every state, Canada and Mexico. Born in Plattsburg, Missouri, McIntyre was raised in Gallipolis, Ohio, where he got his start in newspapers as a reporter for $5 a week. McIntyre died in 1938, and his widow left part of his estate to the Missouri School of Journalism. In her will, she established the O.O. McIntyre Postgraduate Writing Fellowship to help aspiring writers and the O.O. McIntyre Professorship to recognize outstanding educators.

Past Winners of the O.O. McIntyre Professorship

Updated: May 24, 2021

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