After more than 15 years in television, radio and newspaper newsrooms, I moved into academia to share my knowledge with the next generation of journalists and strategic communicators. My areas of expertise are in advanced social media strategies, audience engagement and news literacy. My interest in instructional design drove me to design five courses in less than two years, four of which are delivered online only. That pioneering work resulted in local, regional and national teaching awards during the 2019-2020 academic year. Additionally, in 2019, I became a trainer affiliated with the Freedom Forum’s Power Shift Project, training more than 100 University of Missouri employees in efforts to embrace workplace integrity in an effort to combat harassment and discrimination.