معرفی
Kalen Churcher serves as Associate Professor in the Communication Studies Department at Wilkes University, where she began teaching in 2014 and advises The Beacon student newspaper. A Wilkes alumna, she holds the distinction of being the first graduate with four concentrations: journalism, organizational communication, telecommunication, and rhetoric.
Her research centers on media's role in empowering marginalized groups, with ethnographic work at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola since 2007. Key interests include cultural studies and journalism intersections, media framing of disasters/disease, and diversity issues including stereotypes. She teaches multimedia journalism, mass communications law, and media/cultural studies courses.
Churcher's publication trends reveal sustained focus on prison journalism (particularly Angola's Angolite magazine), disaster coverage analysis (Hurricane Katrina, H1N1 pandemic), and social media's pedagogical applications. Her work consistently examines power dynamics in media representation of incarcerated populations and crisis events.
- Niagara University Excellence in Teaching award (2013)
- AEJMC Promising Professor Award – second place (2012)
- Scripps Howard Academic Leadership Academy (2012)
- Top five paper commendation, International Communication Association (2011)
- Outstanding Scholar-to-Scholar poster award, AEJMC (2009)
With extensive conference panel leadership on faculty-student research collaboration and social justice pedagogy, Churcher demonstrates strong commitment to undergraduate mentorship. Her background includes public relations work for the American Lung Association and six years as a reporter for the Times Leader, covering politics, crime, and education.
Churcher contributes to the Voice of Democracy project as an author, focusing on U.S. oratory analysis. Her educational path includes a Ph.D. in mass communications from Penn State University, a master's in human resources from University of Scranton, and prior experience as Associate Professor and Director of Liberal Arts at Niagara University.
