Leadership and Media Management

Penny Abernathy's research focuses on the implications of the digital revolution for news organizations, the information needs of communities and the emergence of news deserts in the United States. She is the author of “News Deserts and Ghost Newspapers: Will Local News Survive?” and "The Strategic Digital Media Entrepreneur."

David Abrahamson's research focuses on literary journalism, long-form journalism, contemporary magazine media ecosystems, and 20th century media history. He is the author of “Magazine-Made America,” co-editor of the "Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research” and general editor of a 26-volume historical series, "Visions of the American Press."

Chris Benson's work is situated at the intersection of critical race theory, narrative theory, and media studies. His work focuses on social issues we are confronting in areas of stereotypes, hate speech, symbolic representation (e.g. nooses, swastikas, burning crosses, memorials) and media responsibility in clarifying meaning.

Martin Block is an expert in marketing mix models, marketing research and analytical techniques, sales promotion, advertising management, direct marketing and entertainment marketing. He formerly consulted and conducted research for the cable television industry, and has served as an expert witness in cases involving marketing communication issues.

Debbie Cenziper's investigative stories focus on social justice reporting, from affordable housing corruption to breakdowns in child welfare systems. Debbie has spent more than 20 years writing for major daily newspapers, including the Miami Herald and The Washington Post.

Gerry Chiaro is a clinical professor with a long background in business, specifically marketing leadership. His expertise: Brand Strategy Leadership, and Consulting. Gerry has developed nearly 250 team consulting projects for our graduate students.

He joined the faculy in January 2009 and earned a full-time appointment in 2012.

Susan Mango Curtis is an educator, designer and consultant. She specializes in visual storytelling and digital publishing. Formerly, she was the assistant managing editor for the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, where she was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize gold medal.

Kelly Cutler has more than 20 years of experience with digital marketing and digital media. Her work focuses on the areas of search marketing, social media marketing, programmatic, retargeting and digital analytics and measurement. She works in both theory and practice.

Michael Deas focuses on editing and libel as well as multimedia reporting. He is a former editor on the national-foreign and news-design staffs at Chicago Tribune. He was among contributors, including former President Jimmy Carter, who wrote tributes for "Grace Under Fire: Barbara Jordan's Rhetoric of Watergate, Patriotism, and Equality."

Elise De Los Santos is an editor with experience in both traditional and new media. She was executive editor of RedEye, the Chicago Tribune’s publication for millennials, and was an editor on the Tribune's copy desk and audience team, editing stories for print and online publication.

Jack Doppelt is Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Emeritus Prof. of Journalism. He’s publisher of Immigrant Connect and the Doppelt Effect, a blog on current events. He helped create Medill’s Social Justice Journalism direction. His expertise is media law and ethics, the reporting of legal and immigrant affairs, & the tenets of social justice journalism.

Craig Duff's long career in video journalism spans broadcast/cable news, long-form television, documentary filmmaking and video on digital platforms (including key roles at the New York Times and TIME). Craig leads the video and broadcast specialization at Medill and has developed a popular course in producing and reporting video for social media.

Abigail Foerstner is an award-winning reporter covering and teaching health, environment and science journalism. She teaches students how to bridge between an increasingly technological culture and general audiences who rely on science journalism to make critical decisions and understand the wonders around them. She teaches multimedia journalism.

Tim Franklin is leading the Medill Local News Initiative, a research and development project aimed at better understanding the behaviors of digital audiences and finding new approaches to sustainable local news business models.

Judy Franks' research focuses on the supply of media audience attention that flows into the advertising economy. Franks is also studying how self-serve ad portals are democratizing access for businesses of all sizes. Her book, "Media: From Chaos to Clarity" (2nd Ed) provides history and context for today's digital media world and where it's headed.

Jeremy Gilbert's work and research focuses on the content and revenue strategies of existing and emerging media companies. He explores the intersection of technology and media, employing a human-centered design process to examine how new tools and techniques will affect the creation, consumption and distribution of media.

Rich Gordon launched Medill’s graduate program in new media journalism. He has spent most of his career exploring the areas where journalism and technology intersect. He was an early adopter of desktop analytical tools (such as spreadsheets and databases) to analyze data for journalistic purposes.

Tom Hayden is a lawyer and an expert in law, policy and ethics related to integrated marketing communications. He also focuses on data governance and privacy.

Mei-Ling Hopgood, author of Lucky Girl and How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm (Algonquin), has won awards for investigative journalism, travel reporting and writing. She is an expert in reporting and multilingual and international storytelling and narrative. She also works on improving diversity and equity in higher education, newsrooms, and coverage.

Brent E. Huffman's research centers around China's economic influence and presence around the world in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. He has also done extensive research about threatened cultural heritage and human rights issues around the globe. He can also talk about the U.S. and international documentary production, working in conflict, etc.

Craig LaMay is a long-time scholar and practitioner in the field of international assistance, currently at Northwestern’s Qatar campus. His expertise is in international speech law and norms. He is also a sports historian, focusing on Middle East sports, U.S. sport, sports media history, and sport and human rights.

Candy Lee's work on leadership and the effects of voice in technology are showcased in her research. She also does work on customer retention through loyalty, membership, pricing, display, management, attrition consideration, acquisition and growth strategy. Her focus on sport marketing involves diverse arenas from fandom to sponsorship.

Joe Mathewson is a former Supreme Court correspondent for WSJ and a practicing lawyer in Chicago. He stimulates coverage of business, finance and the economy. He is author of “A Quick Guide to Writing Business Stories;” “Law and Ethics for Today's Journalist: A Concise Guide;” and “The Supreme Court and the Press: The Indispensable Conflict.”

Frank Mulhern does research on media economics and technology and its impact on brand communications. His work connects technology to customer data and marketing analytics; particularly with respect to retailing and e-commerce marketing.

Abe Peck has worked in magazines for 40 years as a writer/editor (Rolling Stone, Outside, etc.), an author, a consultant and as Medill's director of B2B communication. The author of “Uncovering the Sixties: the Life and Times of the Underground Press,” he curated Medill's recent series on Media and the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Peter Slevin writes about politics and other topics for The New Yorker. He traveled the country and the world for The Washington Post and The Miami Herald and, at Medill, his biography of Michelle Obama was a finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award.

Larry Stuelpnagel is a former political journalist. He is experienced with the economic and social pressures that impact the news that the public receives. He focuses on the lack of diversity in news staffing and how that impacts reporting on racial and economic issues.

Steven W. Thrasher's research uses journalistic and social science methods to study the intersection of LGBTQ history, racism, policing, incarceration, health disparities and HIV/AIDS. His most recent research focuses on the criminalization of HIV/AIDS and the Black Lives Matter movement in Missouri.

Vijay Viswanathan studies customer experience and marketing effectiveness in B2C and B2B using surveys, text analytics and machine learning. His current work is on online communities, virtual influencers, loyalty programs and governance. He has given numerous talks to industry on customer centricity, embedding AI in analytics and enabling a data culture.

Caryn Ward’s experience and teaching center around video storytelling and broadcast news. She has almost 30 years of experience in local television newsrooms. Ward is also working on research centered around how Gen Z student journalists see their role in the industry and what motivates them to choose journalism.

Charles Whitaker is an expert in diversity in media, media business models, and magazine reporting and publishing. His research has also focused on media coverage of education policy and pedagogy.

Yu Xu's research interests include communication and organizational change, social networks, media industries, sociocultural evolution, and computational social science. His current research focuses on ecological and evolutionary foundations of behavioral and network change in online communities.