Our Speakers
Jose Antonio Vargas - KEYNOTE
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and media publisher whose work centers on the changing American identity.
Frank Burt
Frank Burt has been a broadcast photojournalist for nearly 25 years. He is currently a news photographer and videographer for WESH-TV2, the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Fla. He typically works general assignment stories, which can be anything from city council meetings to breaking news.
Keith Campbell
Keith Campbell is deputy managing editor for news and business at The Dallas Morning News. Over a 25-year career at The News, Campbell has held a variety of editing positions. These include interim managing editor, assistant managing editor, communities editor and deputy sports editor.
Katy Culver
Kathleen Bartzen Culver is an assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication and director of the Center for Journalism Ethics. Long interested in the implications of digital media on journalism and public interest communication, Culver focuses on the ethical dimensions of social tools, technological advances and networked information.
Marcus Donaldson
Marcus (@thoughtMD) is a senior public relations major interested in pursuing career opportunities in social change communications, brand management and online community building. He follows conversations surrounding advocacy and social justice and is especially interested in how public relations can be used to advance social causes.
Thom Fladung
Thom Fladung is vice president of Hennes Communications, one of the few firms in the United States focused exclusively on crisis communications and crisis management. Thom spent 33 years in newspaper newsrooms, and held lead editing positions at the Detroit Free Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Akron Beacon Journal and, most recently, served as managing editor of The Plain Dealer.
Mark Goodman
Mark Goodman joined the faculty of Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication in January 2008 as the first Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism. Goodman, who is also a lawyer, was executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., from 1985 to 2007.
Tom Huang
Tom Huang is Sunday & Enterprise Editor at The Dallas Morning News and Editing Fellow at The Poynter Institute. In 2013, he was a Punch Sulzberger Fellow at Columbia University, where he studied executive leadership and journalism innovation. For the past 14 years, he has taught in Poynter seminars on reporting, writing, editing, ethics, diversity and leadership.
Katherine Joyce
Katherine Joyce is a public health researcher & advocate. Her academic work with Children's HealthWatch has been published in the Journal of Applied Research on Children and Pediatrics and she has worked with community groups on issues surrounding youth and community violence.
Kelly McBride
Kelly McBride is a writer, teacher and one of the country’s leading voices when it comes to media ethics. She has been on the faculty of the Poynter Institute since 2002 and is now its Vice President of Academic Programs.
Brenna Parker
Brenna Parker is a senior public relations major. She currently serves as a Fellow on the Ohio Together campaign and as PRSSA Kent’s Vice President of Professional Relations. Parker is highly involved on campus and her past work experience includes A magazine, vice president of PRSSA, The Burr magazine, The Kent Stater and TV2. She competed in the 2016 Bateman Case Study competition for Student Veterans of America.
Shaheen Pasha
Brenna Parker is a senior public relations major. She currently serves as a Fellow on the Ohio Together campaign and as PRSSA Kent’s Vice President of Professional Relations. Parker is highly involved on campus and her past work experience includes A magazine, vice president of PRSSA, The Burr magazine, The Kent Stater and TV2. She competed in the 2016 Bateman Case Study competition for Student Veterans of America.
Lindsey Smith
Lindsey Smith is an award-winning reporter for Michigan Radio, the NPR news station affiliated with the University of Michigan. She covers west Michigan. Her work has been recognized by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters and the Associated Press. This year, “Not Safe to Drink,” a documentary she produced about the Flint water crisis, won a national Murrow Award.
Shoshana Walter
Shoshana Walter is a reporter for Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, covering human trafficking and public safety. Her investigation on America's armed security guard industry won the 2015 Livingston Award for Young Journalists for national reporting and also was featured in a two-part installment on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360.
Lee Anne Walters
The Flint Water Crisis and Flint resident LeeAnne Walters’ fight for safe water made national headlines in January 2016. Walters, a mother of four, first noticed something was wrong in summer 2014, and months later, became the first citizen to report the problem to the EPA.
Bruce Winges
Bruce Winges has been editor and vice president of the Akron Beacon Journal since May 2007.
Winges has held a variety of editing and management positions since he joined the Beacon Journal in 1982. He has worked on the news and metro desks and has been an assistant managing editor, night managing editor and deputy managing editor.
Please take just a few minutes to give us your feedback on this year's Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop. Be sure to include ideas for next year! Thanks. KSU Media Ethics Survey
The concept of social justice is broad and in America today it can be controversial, even divisive. The Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop this year seeks to examine the ethics of media coverage of several complicated topics such as immigration, safe spaces, violence and environmental inequality. Journalism, public relations and other media best practices also will be discussed.
Contact Us
Jan Leach: jleach1@kent.edu, 330-672-4289
Jennifer Kramer: jlkramer@kent.edu, 330-672-1960
Christina Russ: cruss5@kent.edu, 330-672-2571
Mike Nied: mnied@kent.edu
The Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop is a one-day training program for professionals, educators and students that examines critical issues and perspectives in media ethics. Moderated by distinguished faculty from The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Media Ethics Workshop provides a unique forum for professionals and students alike to confront and discuss significant issues crucial to understanding journalism and media ethics and their effects. Previous Workshops have addressed online ethics, sports media ethics, political media ethics, the ethics of data mining and the ethics of covering trauma. Established in 2004, the Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop continues its mission to strengthen media credibility and bolster audience faith in media integrity.
Jose Antonio Vargas
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and media publisher whose work centers on the changing American identity.
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Not Safe to Drink - Lindsey Smith
"Not Safe to Drink" is the award-winning series produced by Michigan (Public) Radio that examined the Flint, Mich., water crisis in detail. Reporters, including Lindsey Smith, asked what people would do if their tap water turned brown? If it gave children a rash every time they took a bath?