Katie O'Toole

Katie O’Toole is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications (Penn State). She teaches radio reporting, TV production, podcasting, and media history. Her research focuses on early radio history, sports broadcasting history, and the commercialization of college sports in the 1920s-30s. O’Toole previously spent 24 years at Penn State Public Broadcasting, winning a Mid-Atlantic Emmy and National Educational Television awards for her work in children’s programming and political affairs shows.

Education: B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Penn State University. She leads international reporting programs, taking students to Puerto Rico, Scotland, and other locations. Active in community service, she serves on the Board of Governors of the Centre County Historical Society and produces the local history podcast Dead Centre. She also volunteers with the Mid-State Literacy Council.

Research interests span media history’s intersection with sports and education, including how early radio shaped collegiate athletics and modern journalistic practices. Her recent work emphasizes archival exploration of underdocumented media figures and institutional dynamics in 20th-century communications.