Kathryn Lucchesi earns coveted Provost’s Teaching Award
By Austin Fitzgerald
Photos by Nate Brown
COLUMBIA, Mo. (May 1, 2025) — Kathryn Lucchesi, an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, will accept the Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award on May 2 during Mizzou’s Faculty Excellence Week. The award, which comes with a $1,000 prize, recognizes exceptional teachers with no more than five years of service at Mizzou.
“Kat brings a strong work ethic, high standards and real-world relevance to the classroom,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “She is a phenomenal teacher, and as valuable as she is today, she will continue to grow into a wonderful faculty leader.”
Lucchesi is the course coordinator for the School of Journalism’s news content creation course, which she also teaches in addition to a social media and audience strategy course. In half a decade at the School, she has developed a reputation for a deep commitment to the all-around success of her students.
“Kat made sure students like myself had the resources and knowledge we needed,” wrote Emily Hood, BJ ’24, in a letter recommending Lucchesi for the award. Hood is now the discovery producer at the Minnesota Star Tribune. “She helped organize a speaker series with industry leaders in audience fields to build networking connections. She read countless job and internship applications for myself and others. She helped me negotiate my salary on my first job offer. Her teaching doesn’t stop in the classroom – whenever I or others needed help understanding the journalism industry or life outside the classroom, Kat was there.”
Before joining the School in 2019, Lucchesi — who earned her bachelor’s degree from the School of Journalism in 2009 and a master’s degree in business administration from Mizzou in 2016 — gained experience as a director of social and digital media in college athletics at Mizzou and Oregon State University. She also served as digital marketing director for Stoller Wine Group, where she managed digital strategies for five wine brands.
Now, as a teacher, Lucchesi brings a person-centered perspective to her work that not only shows students how to create content that respects and resonates with real people but supplies those students with the resources they need to fulfill their potential as professionals.
“I naturally choose to treat everyone as people, students, and journalists, in that order. Whether a student is 18 or 26 years old, first-generation or transfer, or from Nigeria or California, they are people first. Coming to college is a different, challenging experience for everyone.”
Kathryn Lucchesi
“I naturally choose to treat everyone as people, students, and journalists, in that order,” Lucchesi wrote in a statement reflecting on her teaching philosophy. “Whether a student is 18 or 26 years old, first-generation or transfer, or from Nigeria or California, they are people first. Coming to college is a different, challenging experience for everyone.”
The impact of this philosophy is apparent not only to Lucchesi’s students but to her colleagues as well. Kellie Stanfield, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and a previous winner of the Provost’s Award, noted as much in another recommendation letter.
“As a colleague and long-time observer of Kat’s teaching excellence, I can say without hesitation that she epitomizes the qualities this award seeks to recognize,” Stanfield wrote. “I am lucky enough to witness her passion for teaching on a daily basis.”
Lucchesi is the third journalism faculty member to receive this award since 2020, with Stanfield winning in 2023 and Robert Greene — Filmmaker-in-Chief at the School’s Murray Center for Documentary Journalism — taking home the honor in 2020.
Updated: May 2, 2025