News

Marlene Neill, Ph.D.,joins prominent organization for world’s leading communicators.  Marlene Neill, Ph.D., APR, associate professor and graduate program director in journalism, public relations and new media at Baylor University, has been accepted into the prestigious Arthur W. Page Society. The good news comes on the heels of Neill's recent win of PRSA's 2022 Outstanding Educator Award.

 Marlene Neill, Ph.D., APR, associate professor and graduate program director in journalism, public relations and new media at Baylor University, will be presented with the Outstanding Educator Award by the Public Relations Society of America, the nation's leading professional organization serving the communications community, during PRSA's ICON 2022 conference Nov. 13-15 in Grapevine. 

Congratulations to Baylor JPR&NM alumnus Thomas Patrick Moran!!

We are excited to present the spring 2022 Castellaw Connect newsletter. 

WACO, Texas (May 22, 2022) – The final vote at the April 2022 Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications Council meeting confirmed the reaccreditation of the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media for the next six years.

“Swim for the sun. Take only what you can carry. Memories and children first … Jettison the baggage. Don’t try to save those who drag you down. Reach out to hands that are offered, But not to those trying to pull you under.” ~ Rick Bradfield

Baylor journalism students will be able to select Broadcast Journalism as a degree plan starting in the fall of 2023.

Baylor’s Department of Student Media had a banner year, capturing 147 state, regional and national awards despite two-thirds of the student staff being freshmen or in their first year in the program.

The Baylor Chapter of NABJ allows students to get involved and make a difference! Students learn more about the media industry by networking with professionals. Benefits include professional mentors, workshops, internships and training sessions.

Senior lecturer Kevin Tankersley applied for and was awarded two fellowships for the summer.

We are very excited to re-launch the Baylor American Studies Program during the Fall 2022. American Studies offers a comprehensive knowledge of American institutions and culture and prepares students for the world of practical affairs.

Congratulations to Midway High School Teacher Jamie Beavers, a Baylor Journalism alumna, who was recently selected as the 2022 Content Generation Award Educator Winner! Distributed by Class Intercom, this award celebrates educators for their creative use of social media to connect with students and school districts.

The Baylor Student Senate passed a bill of support to say thank you to the Baylor Journalism, Public Relations & New Media Department for conducting “The Plight of the American Criminal Justice System” Symposium in the spring of 2022.

Fostering engaged and experiential learning, Professor Matthew Brammer encouraged students in his JOU 3367 Principles of Advertising and Public Relations class to create a project to help families in war-torn Ukraine. The result was “Bears Helping Babies,” a collaborative effort with students in JOU 4340 Writing and Editing for Online Media.

Lakesyn Melia, a junior public relations and political science major from Franklin, Tennessee, will be the first in her family to complete her college degree.

We are pleased to welcome Lisa Schwartz and Preston Lewis to the Baylor JPR&NM Advisory Board

Beginning in Fall 2021, Professor Robert Darden resumed a collaboration Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. that began with the PBS documentary special, “The Black Church,” which aired in Fall 2020. Darden was interviewed multiple times in “The Black Church” about the intersection of Black sacred music and the Black church. The series also used digitized music and excerpt of sermons from Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project (BGMRP), which Darden founded in 2016.

Sommer Ingram Dean, J.D., joined the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media in the fall as the Fred Hartman Distinguished Professor and Baylor University.

Spring 2022 Castellaw Kudos We are excited to highlight these JPR&NM alumni in the spring 2022 “Castellaw Connect.”

Baylor University is pleased to announce the recent launch of its online Master of Arts in Journalism with a concentration in public relations and advertising. This program will equip graduates with leadership, research and creative skills that are mandatory to succeed in the fields of advertising and public relations. The coursework is designed to meet the job demands and needs of communication professionals who aspire to rise to management roles in advertising and public relations.

After a nearly two-year gestation period, the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media and the Waco Tribune-Herald will launch a new internship program with an accompanying scholarship in the fall of 2022.

Maxey Parrish, senior lecturer of journalism, public relations and new media in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, is retiring after 21 years as a professor. Parrish has been in the Baylor family for 41 years in various departments. Parrish first worked in the athletics department for 20 years, where he founded the athletics website.

“The department as a whole had an outlook of service and preparing students for careers that would benefit society. This instilled a desire to be involved in my community,” said Pablo Gonzales, a 2018 alumnus of Baylor University’s Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media Department. Gonzales shared how Baylor’s undergraduate program prepared him for the position he is in now: a Fulbright Scholar serving in Mexico City, Mexico.

"Organizational change is necessary for entities to succeed," said Mia Moody-Ramirez, Ph.D., the 2021 recipient of The Cornelia Marschall Smith Award, during her keynote speech titled "Organizational Change in an Age of Covid-19 and Social Unrest." The speech was given in February by Dr. Moody-Ramirez, who is professor and chair of the Baylor University Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media.

As a final requirement before graduation, Hannah Smith, a Baylor graduate student, completed a defense for her master’s project, which highlights the beauty of Waco’s past, present, and future. Smith drew inspiration from Fred Gildersleeve, a documentary-style photographer who captured thousands of photos of Waco sites in the early 1900s, to look back on Waco’s history to understand its past and be able to document its growth.

A new broadcast concentration, which will integrate current and new courses designed explicitly for the concentration, was recently approved by the university and will be available to Baylor students in the upcoming fall semester.

Baylor University’s Journalism, Public Relations and New Media Department hosted the annual student awards ceremony for 2022 in the Paul & Jane Meyer Conference Room at Foster Business School on Friday, April 22, featuring guest speaker and alumna, Claire St. Amant. For many students, this was the first time to attend the ceremony in person due to the pandemic, which required the ceremony to be held online in 2020 and 2021.

Baylor graduate student Jaden Jennings will be graduating on May 13. She provided her perspective regarding what it is like to be a part of Baylor's Graduate Journalism program.

Baylor JPR&NM alumna Kennedy Dendy (‘19) has accepted a position with Action News Jax in Jacksonville, Florida.

Alumna Nina Thornton was recently promoted to Senior Marketing Manager at Zymo Research Corp. (a biotech company in Irvine, California) and awarded the company’s 2021 Young Leadership Award.

Savanah Landerholm, an alumna with a master’s degree in international journalism, and her husband Scott are excited to welcome a new addition to the family.

Baylor JPR&NM alumna Madelyn Gee reached another one of her goals in December—she graduated with a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas in Austin.

Greetings and welcome to the Fall 2021 Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media newsletter. We are excited to debut “Castellaw Connect,” the new format of our alumni newsletter. In this inaugural issue, we spotlight the accomplishments of faculty, alumni and students. We also share reaccreditation, facilitates and fundraising updates. We’ve been busy, and we have lots of exciting news to share!

Canales graduated from Baylor in May 2021 with a degree in Journalism New Media and a minor in Business Administration.

Baylor JPR&NM alumna and MCC Foundation Executive Director Kim Patterson has been named “Outstanding Fundraising Professional” by the Central Texas Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

The Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media is excited to showcase the following individuals in its 2021 “News and Newsmakers” exhibit: James Baldwin, Nellie Bly, Cesar Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, Wilson Fielder, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ida B. Wells. These are notable history makers who led or documented important social movements. They include journalists, poets, activists and historians who made an important mark on society.

Black Gospel music is a foundational ingredient in every popular music genre in America, and with the opening last week of Baylor University’s Black Gospel Archive and Listening Center, music that has long been accessible only to music scholars and historians is now available to the public.

The departure of coalition forces from Afghanistan on Aug. 30 led us to both ponder and again celebrate the life and legacy of one of the Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media’s most memorable and honored graduates, Sharon Kay Herbaugh (’77).

A Baylor University-led study on ethical listening discovered that women and nonmanagers believe that management is not receptive to their feedback and are dissatisfied with organization listening efforts. That, in turn, has led to fewer employees sharing legitimate concerns.

Baylor JPR&NM alumna Andrea Gaul recently accepted a new role as Internal Communications Manager at the National Safety Council, America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate.

Veteran newsman Rick Bradfield’s legacy will live on forever with the Rick Bradfield Award for Breaking News and Investigative Journalism.

Baylor Journalism, Public Relations and New Media alumnus Shehan Jeyarajah (BA, Class of 2016) joined CBS Sports as a National College Football Writer. His first day was Aug. 29.

Editor-in-chief is no simple job—it involves extreme attention to detail, countless hours of brainstorming, a team player attitude and a talent of delegation and balance.

BizCom President Monica Feid, who serves on the JPR&NM department’s advisory board, recently hired two Baylor University graduates

Congratulations to JPR&NM alumna Christina Soto for her recent promotion to weekend evening anchor at NBC2 News in Florida.

Since graduating from Baylor University with a degree in Journalism in May 2020, Baylor JPR&NM alumna Jillian Price has been busy. She began the master’s program in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2020. Since then, she has written for the school’s online publication, Reporting Texas, interned with the Daily Dot and participated in the NPR Next Generation program with the Texas Observer.

Working for Uplifting Athletes allows Baylor JPR&NM alumnus Levi Norwood to put to use the skills he developed as a student-athlete, PR major and Sport Management graduate student at Baylor University– for something that is inspiring and changing/saving lives.

Baylor University’s Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media will dedicate three walls during this year’s homecoming reception at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, in Room 245 of the Castellaw Communications Center.

Baylor Journalism, Public Relations & New Media alumnus Matt Hellman (BA, Class of 2013) has joined the University of North Texas family in his new role as Graphic Design Specialist for the UNT College of Music.

Cassy Burleson, senior lecturer, Baylor University wins for her exceptional dedication to student success