Kimberly Lauffer, Ph.D.

I am an assistant professor of journalism at Keene State College, where I teach courses in journalism, public relations and social media. My research on media coverage of end-of-life issues has been published in the Atlantic Journal of Communication, Newspaper Research Journal, Visual Communication Quarterly and the Journal of Media and Religion. I have also published research in Mass Communication and Society, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, and the Howard Journal of Communications. I have been a post-secondary educator for more than 20 years.

Past academic positions

Past positions have included associate professor of journalism and new media at Towson University, where I earned tenure and promotion in 2006.

In the 2006-07 academic year, I served as assistant provost for undergraduate studies at Towson University, returning to faculty in 2007.

At Towson, I taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, including skills and theory. I was actively involved in my department and in the university and local community. I also maintained an active research agenda, focusing on how media frame health, crime, and juveniles, as well as the intersection of these topics with diversity and hegemony.

I left Towson in 2010 for a full-time position as the web editor in Alma College‘s communication and marketing office.

In Alma’s communication and marketing office, I worked with colleagues to produce high-quality web content, social media content, live webcasts and accompanying chats, an alumni magazine and press releases. A responsive mini-site I designed using Twitter Bootstrap impelled the college’s Board of Trustees to donate $150,000 of their own money toward a complete, responsive web redesign, a nine-month process in which I played an active and leading role. Although much of my previous experience and education has been journalistic, my experience at Alma gave me a wealth of examples to draw upon to teach students about crisis communication, public relations writing, putting theory and research into action, using social media effectively and using research to guide decision making.

In 2014, I decided to return to teaching at Bowling Green State University. As an instructor of journalism, I taught courses in newswriting, media law and ethics, and data visualization as well as a large introductory course until 2016, when I accepted a tenure-track position at Ball State University.

I worked at Ball State as an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at Ball State University, where I taught introduction to visual communication, introduction to digital media and design for strategic communication in the journalism graphics sequence. I also taught a graduate course in visual storytelling in odd-year spring semesters.

I hold a doctorate in mass communication from the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Florida, where I taught laboratory sections of newswriting and journalism graphics, and a master’s in journalism from Michigan State University. My bachelor’s degree is also from Michigan State in English with a minor in biology and a secondary teaching certificate (now expired).