Missouri School of Journalism’s Martha Steffens wins prestigious Governor’s Award for Teaching Excellence
COLUMBIA, Mo. (April 29, 2025) — Martha Steffens, a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, has won the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. The honor recognizes one faculty member from each campus in the University of Missouri System for outstanding teaching and support of student achievement.
Steffens will accept the award on May 2 during the Faculty Recognition Awards Ceremony, which is part of Faculty Excellence Week.
“Marty’s classes push the next generation to think about new media models that will make public service, fact-based journalism sustainable,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “And as a mentor, her impact is clear: A line regularly forms at her office door with students seeking her advice and advocacy as they move into the professional world. It’s great to see her recognized with this award.”
Steffens came to the School of Journalism in 2002 after 30 years as an editor and writer in the news industry. She now has more than two decades of teaching business journalism to add to that body of experience, making her a valued source of industry and institutional knowledge.
“To be acknowledged for teaching excellence, it really fills your heart. It’s really fulfilling, because often what we do can go unnoticed by a lot of people.”
Martha Steffens
“To be acknowledged for teaching excellence, it really fills your heart,” said Steffens, who is the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) endowed chair at the School of Journalism. “It’s really fulfilling, because often what we do can go unnoticed by a lot of people.”
Don’t count Tracy Cook, BJ ’16, MA ’17, among those who have failed to notice. In a letter recommending Steffens for the award, Cook recalled the impact of Steffens’ business journalism and economic reporting course.
“In true Missouri Method fashion, she brought the coursework to life,” Cook wrote, referencing the School of Journalism’s trademark approach to learning by doing. “I wrote my first earnings story that semester after she got a Sonic Drive-in executive to hold an earnings call for our class.”
Cook now works as a strategic communications editor at Amazon, embodying the fusion of business and communication at a company she first connected with during a Steffens-led media tour in Seattle.
Indeed, Steffens’ track record of touching the lives of successful journalists and communicators is so strong that it is difficult for her to go near or far without running into a former protégé. She bumped into New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker — whom she hired as an intern at the LA Times in the 1980s before he went on to co-write the Washington Post’s first story about the Monica Lewinsky scandal — a few years ago during an international teaching excursion. He knew her instantly.
“Despite being one of the most distinguished professors at the Missouri School of Journalism, [Steffens] is always approachable, consistently offering an open door to students like myself and making time to help, even with her busy schedule.”
Egan Ward
A bit closer to home, she taught and mentored Elizabeth Stephens, who is now the executive editor of Columbia’s community newspaper of record: the Columbia Missourian, housed at the School of Journalism.
The list of accomplished alums is too long to reproduce, and there are more coming every semester. There is senior Egan Ward, for example, who has a job lined up with the Puget Sound Business Journal once he graduates in May. The news organization was looking to fill a position in March, but in a conversation with the editor, Steffens made it clear that, in her words, “You can wait for him.”
They waited for him.
“Despite being one of the most distinguished professors at the Missouri School of Journalism, [Steffens] is always approachable, consistently offering an open door to students like myself and making time to help, even with her busy schedule,” Ward wrote in a recommendation letter on Steffens’ behalf. “Throughout my nearly four years at the Missouri School of Journalism, I’ve never met a student who hasn’t been profoundly impacted by her teaching.”
The Puget Sound Business Journal, like Amazon and a host of other organizations, was a stop on one of Steffens’ media tours — just one of several “study away” excursions and trainings she leads, including a SABEW data workshop in Washington, D.C. open to professionals but to which she often invites students, another workshop with the St. Louis Federal Reserve and extensive international teaching and training. The media tours allow students to step inside newsrooms and PR agencies to make connections and catch firsthand glimpses into how the industry operates.
“A lot of times, students will tell me that the tour was one of the most significant experiences they had in their college education,” Steffens said. “I think it’s great. I want to give these kids the kind of experience that’s going to make their career.”
With Steffens’ win, School of Journalism faculty have earned the Governor’s Award in four of the last six years. Steffens also won a Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2021 and the President’s Award from SABEW in 2013.
Updated: May 1, 2025