Faculty and Staff

Ben received an M.S. in journalism from WVU in 2008 and a Ph.D. in media and public affairs from LSU in 2013. LaPoe's work focuses on the intersections of journalism, media, and politics. Ben has taught media writing, interactive storytelling, multimedia journalism, ethical community coverage in journalism, media advocacy, social media, intercultural communication, strategic political communications, quantitative research methods, civil rights tour, media law, and media history courses. A significant component of LaPoe's teaching philosophy is founded on helping students be adaptive, inquisitive individuals prepared to research and apply informed solutions in a constantly changing communications environment. 

A former student now working at a Cleveland television station said it best: Journalism “runs in her veins.”

Dr. Victoria LaPoe earned degrees in journalism, worked as a journalist and media strategist and received recognition for both journalism research and professional practice. LaPoe is thankful to be part of a department that understands journalism is grounded in history, ethics, law, public accountability and civic responsibility. Her work bridges journalism, digital media, public relations, strategic communication, organizational communication and public affairs. Her professional background includes television news, international media consulting, audience research, talent coaching, public relations and higher education leadership.

After entering high school at age 13, Dr. LaPoe was selected at age 15 as an editor of her high school newspaper while enrolled in an advanced math and science program in a major television market. Through a university-supported “NewsWhys” program, she wrote and anchored televised news cut-ins that aired on local NBC and PBS affiliates.

At age 17, she began writing for her college newspaper, The Daily Iowan, while studying broadcasting at the University of Iowa. At age 18, she covered the Iowa caucuses and reported from a Des Moines event featuring then-Vice President Al Gore, examining health care and regional medical systems during the Clinton-Gore administration. Her reporting also explored national legal advocacy efforts tied to health care litigation and the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City. At the same time, she interviewed U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin while covering his 1996 re-election campaign strategy and outreach efforts to University of Iowa students on issues including federal student loans and youth political engagement.

At 19, she contributed reporting to The Gazette’s Iowa City bureau, covering local government, municipal development and community issues in the greater Johnson County area, including Iowa City and surrounding communities such as Solon, Iowa.

In addition, her reporting on a domestic violence shelter aired on public broadcasting television.

At age 20, while interning at KCRG-TV, Dr. LaPoe covered a major anti-tobacco press conference featuring Dr. C. Everett Koop, the nationally recognized former U.S. surgeon general known for his public health advocacy surrounding tobacco and youth smoking prevention. During the event, she asked Dr. Koop direct questions about his anti-smoking campaign, which later aired on the ABC affiliate. She also interviewed nationally prominent political figures, including former Vice President Dan Quayle and future presidential candidate Bill Bradley.

She later contributed to research and strategy initiatives at the internationally recognized media consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates, as well as Crawford, Johnson & Northcott. At those companies, she specialized in strategy research, marketing communication, audience analysis and talent coaching. Her work supported television, political, entertainment and sports clients, as well as digital media initiatives across the United States and internationally.

Separately, during this period, she voiced radio and online advertisements and appeared in television commercials.

Dr. LaPoe also served on a Future of News innovation team that researched and implemented real-time newsroom strategies for explaining major weather events to audiences.

She contributed to industry research and strategic guidance related to television news coverage following the Sept. 11 attacks. Her work focused on audience and programming considerations related to breaking-news coverage and the return of commercial advertising during crisis reporting.

Her broadcasting career centered on producing in major and politically significant news markets, including Des Moines, Iowa, and Louisville, Kentucky. She produced multiple daily newscasts, political and breaking-news coverage, high school sports programming and major special-event coverage ranging from the Olympics to the Kentucky Derby. During the early evolution of digital media delivery systems, she also voiced news headlines for a television station’s website bot, reflecting an early intersection of broadcasting and digital news technologies.

While working in Louisville, Dr. LaPoe became part of an early generation of hybrid newsroom professionals who combined producing, writing, reporting, research and on-air work across multiple newsroom functions. Her work contributed to one of the top-rated 6 p.m. newscasts in the country, and she earned an Associated Press regional award for Best Newscast coverage of breaking news. A series project she pitched, researched and helped produce was later featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Alongside her journalism career, Dr. LaPoe continued graduate study focused on longstanding interests in research, statistics, strategy, organizational communication and audience behavior. Drawing from both newsroom and consulting experiences, she completed coursework in the MBA program at the University of Iowa, including Corporate Financial Reporting and Marketing and Management, before redirecting her graduate studies toward a Ph.D. track.

Her interdisciplinary interests in media research, sports communication, quantitative reasoning and public affairs eventually led her to Louisiana State University, where she earned her Ph.D. Approximately half of her doctoral coursework was completed with political science faculty focused on advanced population statistics, quantitative reasoning and public affairs research.

Following LSU, Dr. LaPoe joined Western Kentucky University in 2013. As a pre-tenure assistant professor, she was appointed overall sequence coordinator for broadcasting and film. In that role, she oversaw approximately 500 of the program’s 700 students within the university’s state-recognized Program of Distinction in broadcasting and journalism. The program was accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, and she played a key role in the school’s successful reaccreditation efforts, including serving on assessment initiatives and meeting directly with the ACEJMC site team during the accreditation review process.

She also helped lead significant financial and technological upgrades to a newsroom while advising news, sports, television and radio programs. She later held interim management responsibilities for Revolution 91.7 (WWHR), WKU’s student-run FCC-licensed radio station. In addition to teaching writing for broadcasting, advertising, public relations and film, she taught news and sports reporting, producing and broadcast performance for both radio and television.

Her teaching and producing experiences included live breaking-news and tornado coverage during broadcast events.

In 2017, Dr. LaPoe joined the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, where she taught in both journalism and strategic communication. She advised award-winning students, chaired the school’s contest committee and served as director of studies in journalism for the Honors Tutorial College from 2020 to 2024, guiding a cohort through the COVID-19 pandemic.

During her time at Ohio University, students earned placements in Hearst’s and Society of Professional Journalists competitions, and she advised a first-place nationally recognized Public Relations Student Society of America chapter. She also served on assessment initiatives related to ACEJMC accreditation and program review. In 2018, she received national recognition from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication with the Outstanding Woman in Journalism and Mass Communication Education award. In spring 2025, she was named Overall Outstanding University Professor and received the Scripps College Discovery Award for fostering creativity, collaboration and innovation.

Dr. LaPoe joined the University of Cincinnati in fall 2025. Her current scholarship explores journalism, academic communication systems, ethics in sourcing, artificial intelligence, public relations, environmental communication and crisis communication.

She is a lifetime member of the Indigenous Journalists Association. She served as vice president from 2017 to 2019 and education chair from 2016 to 2019 and has been a member of the education committee since 2015.

In 2026, Dr. LaPoe was elected programming chair of the Public Relations Society of America Educators Academy after serving on the programming committee in 2025. PRSA is a national organization representing nearly 20,000 members.

She also serves on the inaugural editorial board of the Diné College Press, based on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico.

In her spare time, Dr. LaPoe volunteers at an Urban Native Collective garden and spends time with her husband, two sons, Cane Corsos, cats and a frog named Sage that found its way into her garden.

Dr. LaPoe has one son born in Athens, Ohio, and another born near Tiger Stadium. Her name is engraved on a brick outside LSU’s journalism school alongside her husband’s, commemorating their Ph.D. graduations and reflecting a fitting connection for a Bengals fan and graduate of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication.

Dr. Cotton is an Associate Professor - Educator in the Journalism Department.  He is also currently the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Journalism. He teaches Principles of American Journalism, Journalism Research, and Public Affairs Reporting. He has previously taught courses on diversity in the media, journalism and media ethics, media literacy, social media, popular culture, and interpersonal communication. A critical media scholar, Dr. Cotton's research focuses broadly on ethics in mass communication both through practice and theory.  He has published and presented research exploring race and representation in news media, media framing, and organizational crisis communication.  

Sean Hughes has over 30 years of professional documentary, photojournalism and design experience. He is currently a full-time Professor-Educator, specializing in photojournalism, multimedia and media design in the Department of Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, as well as a working documentary director, videographer, and photojournalist.

Prior to that, Hughes was the Art Director for both CityBeat newspaper, The Sondheim Review international magazine, and the national print and online publication Everything Sondheim. While at CityBeat he won over 20 local, state and national awards for photography, web and graphic design from Ohio and Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists, Cleveland Press Club, Association of Alternative Newspapers (AAN) and AWN, including two-time Ohio SPJ's Designer of the Year (2004 and 2006). 

His photojournalism and documentary work runs the gamut: from NCAA basketball finals to extensive documentary studies in Cuba and India; coverage of medical teams in Oaxaca, Mexico; an official photographer for the Bunbury Music Festival; and numerous magazine features. He also served as the director of photography for the first-ever U.S.-held World Choir Games in 2012. Hughes was also one of six photographers chosen state-wide to create a “re-photographic” survey of Ohio sites documented as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, through the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The project was organized by the Ohio Humanities Council with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The photo survey was converted to a touring exhibit, with a featured exhibit as part of the FotoFocus Biennial in 2012: Images of the Great Depression: A Documentary Portrait of Ohio 1935-2010.

In 2016, he shot, edited and co-directed the documentary The Intimate Realities of Water, which won Best Documentary and Best Overall Film at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. It was also a finalist for Best Documentary at the Paris Arts and Music Awards. In the North Carolina Film Awards it was selected as the winner of its Board of Director's Award. At the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards it won Best Cultural Feature, Best First-Time Filmmakers, Best Writer, and Best Narration awards. At the United International Film Festival it took home first place for best documentary, and it was included in the Louisville International Festival of Film.

In his follow-up documentary, Thirsty and Drowning in America, Hughes revisited his role as videographer, editor and co-director with Adrian Parr. From 2020-2021, they earned official selection honors at the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival, the Montreal Independent Film Festival, the International Independent Film Festival Hollywood, the Amsterdam World International Film Festival, Docs Without Borders Film Festival, and the Lift-Off Global Network festivals in Melbourne and Berlin.

Professor-Educator Bob Jonason teaches multimedia classes, including the News Collaborative, a journalism capstone class that produces enterprise stories for syndication to local news outlets. The class gives students a hands-on learning experience that blends technical and production skills with story ideation, research and reporting. Stories by Jonason's students have been honored by the Associated Collegiate Press, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Student-produced videos in his classes have been recognized with regional Emmy Awards.

A recipient of a Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute fellowship, he teaches a class on the concepts and practices of media entrepreneurship. In addition, he is the department's internship director, the business manager of The News Record, UC's student-run news organization, and the adviser to UC's student group of the Online News Association.

In 2022, he and his family established the Robert Jonason Family Scholarship, which is given annually to a high-achieving journalism major at the university.

His background includes more than three decades of experience in professional journalism. For a decade he was a leader in digital media at The Indianapolis Star. He directed The Star’s Online Services department, leading all digital media operations and initiatives and serving on the company's executive committee. During this time The Star achieved tremendous growth in digital traffic and revenue and won many local, state and national awards for its digital efforts, including a national award for community service. For six consecutive years under his direction, IndyStar.com was named Indiana's best news site by the Hoosier State Press Association. Jonason also was an editor for 12 years at Philadelphia Newspapers, first in the newsroom of The Philadelphia Inquirer and then as a founding editor of Philadelphia Online, now Inquirer.com. Early in his career, he was a reporter and editor on The (Fort Wayne) News-Sentinel staff that was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.

He has taught journalism classes as an adjunct professor at Indiana University and as an instructor at Ball State University. He is a member of the Online News Association, College Media Business and Advertising Managers and the Associated Collegiate Press.

Jenny Wohlfarth is an award-winning magazine journalist with 30+ years of professional experience who has been teaching journalism at UC since 2000, originally as a part-time adjunct instructor while she was working full-time as a magazine editor. After completing her M.A. degree in English (emphasis in editing and publishing) at UC, she helped build the UC Journalism Program -- which later became the UC Department of Journalism -- while teaching courses in feature writing, magazine writing, news writing, editing and specialty reporting topics.

Now a full professor (in the educator/teaching track), she teaches a wide range of courses across the curriculum: Feature Writing & In-Depth Reporting, Magazine Writing, Environmental Journalism, Science & Nature Writing, Travel Writing, Women in Journalism, Advanced Magazine Writing, Magazine Publishing, and International Field Study in Journalism -- all courses she created and developed. She was the department's first director of undergraduate studies, from 2012-2019, and has served as faculty adviser for several student journalism groups, including the UC chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists (UC-SPJ), Association of Black Journalists (UC-ABJ) and a handful of student-run online magazines.

Professor Wohlfarth’s work has been published in numerous national magazines, covering topics ranging from art/design, architecture, agriculture and animals to business, environmental and social issues, nature/science and travel writing. She has been honored by numerous reporting awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her work in feature/magazine writing, beat reporting and lifestyle reporting.
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Her journalism career began shortly after she completed an undergraduate degree in creative writing (composition) at the University of Evansville (Indiana). She landed a full-time job in journalism—at a horse magazine in Texas—and quickly fell in love with reporting. She is a former staff editor/managing editor/executive editor at several national magazines—including the Cincinnati-based design publications HOW Magazine and I.D. (International Design) Magazine—and is a longtime contributing editor to Cincinnati Magazine. She is vice-president of the Greater Cincinnati Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and an active member of the national SPJ, the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) and, most recently, the National Association of Science Writers.

Professor Wohlfarth has been honored with numerous teaching/advising awards, including the UC Department of English William C. Boyce Award for Excellence in Teaching, the SPJ David L. Eshelman Outstanding Campus Adviser Award and the University of Cincinnati Honors Program’s Excellence in Teaching Award—all honors based on nominations from her students and advisees. In 2022, she was nominated by a student for the prestigious UC George Barbour Award for Good Faculty-Student Relations.  

She has a keen interest in active-learning techniques and has co-presented on SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning) topics at numerous conferences, including the International Lilly Conference for College Teaching and the International Society of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Annual Conference. She is an advocate of innovative, student-centered instruction methods, and has frequently been tapped to lead training sessions for faculty on active-learning techniques, contemplative teaching strategies and methods for increasing student engagement. Her professional work and her involvement in teaching faculty-led study-abroad courses for the UC Honors Program have enabled her to travel to and write about fascinating places around the world, including Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Namibia and Iceland.

Omotayo Banjo, PhD (Penn State University, 2009) focuses on representation and audience responses to racial and cultural media. Her work has been published in peer reviewed journals including Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Communication Theory, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Media and Religion, and Race and Social Problems. She has also presented her research at regional, national and international conferences which include the International Communication Association, National Communication Association, Association for Education  in Journalism & Mass Communication, and the Collegium for African-American Research.  Dr. Banjo teaches courses related to media theory, identity, and race. She is also an affiliate faculty of Africana Studies, Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, and Journalism.

Nancy Jennings, PhD., is a Niehoff Professor in the School of Communication, Film, and Media Studies and Director of the Children’s Education and Entertainment Research (CHEER) Lab at the University of Cincinnati.  Nancy studies the impact of media on children and their families and public policies and practices involved with children’s media.  Her engaged research focuses on media literacy education to support equitable media literacy practices with and for community members and ecomedia projects including Forest Calls 2.0, a transmedia project on biodiversity, and WeMe’s Nature World, an environmental preschool video series with international collaborators.

Her research focuses on children's cognitive and social development and their use of media.  She employs experimental design as well as qualitative methodologies to explore children’s relationships with media characters.  She has also conducted evaluation research on educational media and outreach programs and content analyses and textual analyses of media content.  She has authored Tween Girls and Their Mediated Friends (2014) and co-edited The Marketing of Children's Toys with Rebecca Hains (2021), and 20 Questions about Youth and the Media with Sharon Mazzarella (2018).  Dr. Jennings has published on other topics including virtual environments, children’s advertising, families and media, and media violence. 

She also provides parent education programs on children’s media use, directs, and has published peer-reviewed journals articles in journals such as New Media & Society, Journal of Family Communication, Journal of Children and Media, and Learning, Media and Technology.  She has also published book chapters in the Handbook of Family Communication, the Handbook of Children and Media, and 20 Questions about Children and Media.

David Niven (Ph.D., Ohio State University) teaches American politics and conducts research on political campaigns, gerrymandering, political communication and death penalty policy. David is the author of several books including The Politics of Injustice: The Kennedys, The Freedom Rides and the Electoral Consequences of a Moral Compromise (University of Tennessee Press) and has published research in numerous journals including the Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Polity, Social Science Quarterly, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and the Journal of Black Studies. David has testified as an expert witness and consulted on gerrymandering cases in state and federal courts and wrote an amicus brief submitted to the Ohio Supreme Court in Preterm Cleveland v. Yost. David's political analysis has been quoted widely including in the New York Times, Washington Post, and The New Yorker. David has worked as a speechwriter for political and academic leaders including Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, and Ohio State University President Gordon Gee.

JON HUGHES, Emeritus Professor of English & Journalism, is an award-winning reporter, author and photojournalist. He has been on the staffs of three daily and two alternative newspapers in addition to writing and producing radio dramas and a television documentary on Cuba. Hughes is the author, editor, or major contributor to 11 books. More than 1,200 of his photographs have been published and his images have been exhibited internationally. He is director of photography of the award-winning documentary series "The Intimate Realities of Water."
 
Photojournalism published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Village Voice, Sun Magazine, Cincinnati Magazine, Ohio Magazine, Boulevard, New Letters, Worth Magazine, Tributary, Cincinnati Enquirer.

Photojournalism Exhibits: Taft Museum, Fototeca de Cuba (Havana), Indiana University, University of Cincinnati, United State Air Force Academy, College of Mount St. Joseph, ArtWorks, Pittsburg State University.

Professor-Educator Bob Jonason teaches multimedia classes, including the News Collaborative, a journalism capstone class that produces enterprise stories for syndication to local news outlets. The class gives students a hands-on learning experience that blends technical and production skills with story ideation, research and reporting. Stories by Jonason's students have been honored by the Associated Collegiate Press, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Student-produced videos in his classes have been recognized with regional Emmy Awards.

A recipient of a Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute fellowship, he teaches a class on the concepts and practices of media entrepreneurship. In addition, he is the department's internship director, the business manager of The News Record, UC's student-run news organization, and the adviser to UC's student group of the Online News Association.

In 2022, he and his family established the Robert Jonason Family Scholarship, which is given annually to a high-achieving journalism major at the university.

His background includes more than three decades of experience in professional journalism. For a decade he was a leader in digital media at The Indianapolis Star. He directed The Star’s Online Services department, leading all digital media operations and initiatives and serving on the company's executive committee. During this time The Star achieved tremendous growth in digital traffic and revenue and won many local, state and national awards for its digital efforts, including a national award for community service. For six consecutive years under his direction, IndyStar.com was named Indiana's best news site by the Hoosier State Press Association. Jonason also was an editor for 12 years at Philadelphia Newspapers, first in the newsroom of The Philadelphia Inquirer and then as a founding editor of Philadelphia Online, now Inquirer.com. Early in his career, he was a reporter and editor on The (Fort Wayne) News-Sentinel staff that was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.

He has taught journalism classes as an adjunct professor at Indiana University and as an instructor at Ball State University. He is a member of the Online News Association, College Media Business and Advertising Managers and the Associated Collegiate Press.

James Wilson serves as a Magazine/Narrative Nonfiction Track adviser and has a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of New Mexico.  He has worked as a feature writer for newspapers in northern New Mexico and as an editor at Prairie Schooner and Saltillo magazines. He has published creative nonfiction in both literary and consumer magazines. His books include: Vietnam in Prose and Film (1983), John Reed for the Masses (1987), The Hawthorne and Melville Friendship (1990), Embodied Rhetorics: Disability in Language and Culture (2001), and Weather Reports from the Autism Front:  A Father's Memoir of His Autistic Son (2008). His current project, Sex in the Time of Revolution, is an auto-fiction about the summer of 1972, which he spent with a French companion traveling in the former Yugoslavia.