Last year, I was off on medical leave fall quarter and then taught winter and spring quarters. I continue to teach editing, digital storytelling, news writing and feature writing. I am doing video work outside of teaching and working on creative and scholarly writing projects that I hope to continue to get published. During the summer, I had a great time traveling in the Upper Midwest, discovering emerging music and art scenes in Detroit and revisiting my alma mater in Beloit, Wisconsin. This year, change is in the air and new opportunities are on the horizon.

In May 2018, my 24-month ghostwriting project came to an end with the publication by Viking/Penguin of Anticancer Living: Transform Your Life and Health with the Mix of Six. Since its publication, the book has received international praise from some of the world’s leading experts on cancer treatment and prevention. The paperback version is scheduled to launch in May 2019. For me, researching and writing the book was enlightening and transformative. I interviewed dozens of the most respected scientists and oncologists about cancer biology, holistic healing and comprehensive lifestyle change. I also conducted interviews with long-term cancer survivors and found their stories both inspirational and heart-wrenching. In addition to publishing a book, in fall 2018 Associate Professor Maria McLeod and I received word that our article, “Public Relations Videography: A Classroom Case Study in the Production and Dissemination of Digital Content,” was published in The Journal of Communication and Media Studies. In terms of teaching, I continue to reshape and adapt my courses in News Writing, Editing and Digital Media to meet the needs of students in the changing media environment. Outside of school, I rode my bicycle along the Rhine River from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea.

It’s been a busy year for me on virtually every level. I am collaborating on a book project with Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, who heads of the Integrative Medicine Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The book, Anticancer Living, is being published by Viking Penguin/Random House and is due out May 2018.

The process has been challenging but rewarding and I feel incredibly honored to be part of such an ambitious and important project. In terms of teaching, I continue to refine and fine-tune the Editing class I inherited from Carolyn Dale and Tim Pilgrim with encouraging results. Students approach me on almost a weekly basis to tell me they are using their page design skills in internships, in other classes, on the student publications or in their professional work.

I taught one section of the Digital Storytelling class last year, which was fantastic and resulted in some really impressive video profiles. You can see the results for yourself at www.digitalmediainjournalism.com.

Last summer, I co-taught a PR Videography class with Associate Professor Maria McLeod that also was a huge success. The class filled up in less than a week, which is extraordinary for a summer course, and the students, many of whom had no previous video experience, produced amazing work – both 3-5 minute video profiles and shorter social media posts – in only six weeks. I hope the level of enthusiasm for PR video will be enough to push it into our core curriculum during the regular academic year, because I truly believe video is a vital skill and important medium for our PR students moving forward.

At home, Maria and I added an addition to our house, which was, like my book project, both challenging and rewarding. Now we have the ability to host guests and provide them with their own bathroom. Imagine that.

While 2020 presented challenges on all fronts, it was a big year for me in terms of teaching, research and publications. After being nominated three times over the last 15 years, I finally won the Ronald Kleinknecht Excellence in Teaching Award, the highest honor for non-tenure track faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. I had a proposal accepted for the Fifteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society and gave a virtual presentation in June on “Connecting Communities Through Shared Journeys: Digital Storytelling as an Act of Democracy.” I also published a personal essay documenting my attempts 20 years ago to tell the stories of Indigenous farmers in the wake of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. That essay, “Turistas,” was published in Yemassee, the literary journal of the University of South Carolina. I have continued my efforts to become more fluent in Spanish, working one on one with a Spanish tutor through Western’s Employee Language Program. During the summer, I took part in two Faculty Professional Development Workshops to improve my online teaching. I also traveled back to my hometown in the Midwest to continue research for my third book project, tentatively titled “Jackson Falls,” a series of monologues recounting the night my best friend fell off a cliff 30 years ago in Southern Illinois.