Martha Steffens

Martha Steffens is a Professor and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) Endowed Chair in Business and Financial Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri. She has been a faculty member since 2002, bringing over three decades of professional journalism experience into her teaching and outreach. Her work spans business journalism, economic reporting, civic engagement in media, and global press freedom initiatives.

Her research and teaching interests include business journalism, financial reporting, entrepreneurial journalism, civic journalism, media ethics, and international journalism training. She emphasizes experiential learning through media tours, workshops, and real-world reporting projects, embodying the Missouri Method of learning by doing.

Steffens has led over 100 workshops in 28 countries, trained more than 800 journalists across the U.S. and Canada, and played a pivotal role in developing journalism standards abroad, including helping draft ethics codes in Yemen and leading the first training for women journalists in Saudi Arabia. She has also lectured widely in China, Taiwan, Russia, and the Middle East.

She has received multiple honors for teaching and service, including the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2025), the Kemper Fellowship (2021), and the SABEW President’s Award (2013). She serves on the executive board of the International Press Institute and has contributed to revisions of SABEW’s ethics code.

• Co-author, Reporting Disaster on Deadline (Routledge, 2012)
• Author, Dimension Reporting (Kendall Hunt, 2014)

As a dedicated mentor, she has advised numerous students who have gone on to prominent roles in journalism, including Peter Baker of The New York Times and Elizabeth Stephens of the Columbia Missourian. She leads international and domestic training programs, media tours to organizations like Amazon and the New York Stock Exchange, and collaborates with institutions such as the St. Louis Federal Reserve and SABEW to provide hands-on learning opportunities.