Grady welcomes three new full-time faculty members
When classes begin this week, three new full-time faculty members will be on hand to teach Grady College students.
A media scholar with over 15 years of experience teaching at the college-level, Nsenga Burton joins the Department of Journalism as digital editor of Newsource. She also teaches news writing and multi-platform production courses.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Dr. Burton is joining our ranks,” said Journalism department head Janice Hume. “She brings an entrepreneurial spirit and a commitment to journalism excellence that will inspire our students. She will mentor them in our digital newsroom and prepare them for careers of the future in multimedia journalism.”
Burton is an award-winning professor, multimedia journalist and blogger, filmmaker and producer. Currently, she serves as editor-at-large for The Root (a Univision company) and contributor to Huffington Post Black Voices where she writes media criticism. In 2012, Burton founded The Burton Wire, an award-winning news blog that covers global Black and Afro-Latino populations. She also serves as Executive Director of the National Association of Multicultural Digital Entrepreneurs and leads her new media consulting firm, The Burton Wire Media Group.
Kate Fortmueller comes to the Department of Entertainment and Media Studies (EMST) as an assistant professor from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and Fairfield University. She teaches courses in media studies and media writing, and her research focuses on media industry studies with an emphasis on labor.
“Dr. Fortmueller’s research in motion-picture production studies with an emphasis on labor issues provides the department and college much-needed depth in key areas,” said Jay Hamilton, EMST department head. “In the current times of increasingly contractor and project-based employment in media industries, her blend of historical and contemporary research helps make better sense of why this kind of employment is so pervasive, how it shapes the kinds of entertainment media made today, and how it will shape the media work and products of tomorrow.”
Fortmueller’s work appears in Television & New Media, Spectator, and is forthcoming in The Journal of Film and Video and Film History.
Keith Herndon (ABJ '82), who has served as a visiting professor at Grady for four years, begins a permanent appointment as Professor of Practice in the Department of Journalism. He is also director of the James M. Cox Institute for Journalism Innovation, Management and Leadership and runs its leadership development program and Grady Mobile News Lab.
“How lucky we are that Dr. Herndon will continue his fantastic work at Grady,” Hume said. “As a visiting professor he has already won our journalism teacher of the year award and developed signature programs for our students. Keith is a gifted teacher and leader, and students thrive under his mentorship.”
Herndon teaches managing news organizations, entrepreneurial journalism, ethics and a variety of journalism skills courses.
Herndon was a media research consultant with Internet Decisions, LLC, a strategic planning firm he began in 2005. He was a founding executive of Cox Enterprises' Internet division, serving as vice president of operations and vice president for planning and product development. He managed strategic partnerships and led technical diligence on Cox’s new media investments, serving on the board of directors of an investment recipient. He was also director of operations at Cox Radio Interactive. Herndon began his career while a student at UGA, working as a reporter for his hometown paper in Elberton, Georgia, and then as a sportswriter for the Anderson Independent and the Athens Banner-Herald. After graduation, he was a Pulliam Journalism Fellow, covering business news at The Indianapolis News. He was a business reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before becoming assistant business editor, deputy business editor and administrative editor.
The author of “The Decline of the Daily Newspaper: How an American Institution Lost the Online Revolution” (Peter Lang, 2012, Herndon also has published two business books about entrepreneurship and innovation.
Date: August 10, 2016Author: Stephanie Moreno, s.moreno@uga.edu
Contact: Jay Hamilton, hamilton@uga.edu; Janice Hume, jhume@uga.edu