Faculty

Kevin Qualls has enjoyed careers in media, law, and higher education. He is a member of the American Bar Association, The Kentucky Bar Association, and the Virginia State Bar. He earned a Juris Doctorate from Liberty University, a Master's in Journalism from Marshall University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Telecommunication from the University of Kentucky. In the late 1980's and early 1990's he produced the nationally syndicated outdoor television series, "The Great American Outdoors." He later produced video for corporate and broadcast clients with a company he owned and operated, "Digital Age Recording." He has worked as a trial attorney and expert witness regarding pre-trial publicity. At the U.S. Attorney's office in the Western District of Virginia, he assisted in the prosecution of cases involving false advertising and cases where evidence was media-based. He joined the faculty of Murray State University in 2008. Prior teaching posts were at Francis Marion University, Marshall University, Paducah Community College, and Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. | Education: Juris Doctorate – Liberty University M.A. – Journalism, Marshall University B.A. – Telecommunication, University of Kentucky | Associations: Kentucky Bar Association Virginia State Bar American Bar Association Broadcast Education Association Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication | Courses: JMC 336 JMC 448 JMC 455 JMC 590

Dr. Bellarmine (Bella) Ezumah joined Murray State University in the Fall of 2011 after her graduation from Howard University (PhD). She was a Frederick Douglass Scholar at Howard. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Ezumah directs our graduate Program and serves as the advisor for all graduate students. She has supervised over 60 graduate comprehensive projects and other empirical research with undergraduate and graduate students. Her research is rooted in critical theoretical and paradigmatic perspectives and is multi-disciplinary, incorporating mass media effects, international communication, educational technology design, implementation, and assessment, religion and media, and impact of emergent technologies on education, business, health, and interpersonal realms. Dr. Ezumah’s research is informed by a wealth of experiences - having lived, visited, presented her work, and conducted research in several countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Jamaica, Greece, Austria, Germany, France, Canada, and the United States. Ezumah is recipient of several grants and awards including the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study educational technology adoption and the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program grant to research and develop a Journalism and Mass Communication program in Uganda. Dr. Ezumah has published about 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings and have presented her work at numerous academic conferences. Her recent book Critical Perspectives of Educational Technology in Africa (2020, Palgrave Macmillan) focused on educational technology design, adoption and implementation in low-income communities. The Murray State Alumni Association bestowed her the 2014 Emerging Scholar Award in recognition of her “superior research and scholarly work that show professional promise”. Ezumah is equally active in community services and at various editorial boards and academic associations including the AEJMC where she served as the Newsletter Editor for the Minorities and Communication (MAC) division, Vice-Head, and later, Head for the Religion and Media Interest Group (RMIG). She volunteers at her local church, St. Leo Catholic Church as a member of the Parish Council, Eucharistic minister, Instructor for the RCIA program, and as Campus Advisor to Newman House, an association for Murray State Catholic students. | Education: Ph.D. Howard University, Washington, DC M.S. Brooklyn College of The City University of New York B.S. St. John's University, New York | Courses: JMC 690 – Master’s Comprehensive Project JMC 658 – New Technologies JMC 660 – Research Methods JMC 630 – Theories of Mass Communication JMC 400 – International Communication JMC 330 – Mass Media Effects JMC 168 – Contemporary Mass Media

Dr. Marcie Hinton enlightens students at Murray State University as a professor of public relations. She also taught journalism/public relations classes at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. She likes to travel with students in experiential learning environments. Some of the "away" classes and places in which she has participated include "The History of Musical Theater" in New York, "Communication for Communion" in Italy and "International Public Relations" in England. Academically, she has published public relations case studies regarding Starbucks, Nigerian women protests, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Toms Shoes and others regarding postmodern public relations as well as international and grassroots communication, but also dabbling in cause-related marketing. Professionally, she works with artists to promote their works and shows by writing artist statements, news releases, maintaining social media, ghostwriting and editing books and other publications. She currently presents a workshop about using mobile technology in the classroom as well. Hinton began her career with internships at Southern Living magazine and Baptist Health Systems. After graduation, she served as the assistant editor for the Southern Living food and travel trade publications. She also wrote back book covers and edited books for Schroeder Publishing. She loves to cook and travel and her favorite combination is attending cooking classes in Italy. | Education: Ph.D: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn. Area of study: Communications with a concentration in Journalism Secondary: Rhetoric and Composition. M.A.: Murray State University, Murray, Ky. May 1995 Area of study: Communications with a concentration in Journalism. B.A.: Samford University, Birmingham, Ala. May 1991 Major: Journalism Mass Communications. Minor: English.

Dr. Debbie A. Owens is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Communications at Murray State University where she has served on the faculty since 2002. Professor Owens conducts seminars in international mass communications, and in media, culture, gender and race. She has taught special topics courses on women in broadcasting, the British media, and the Civil Rights Movement and the press. She has also taught undergraduate courses in newswriting, script writing, television reporting and advanced news production. Professionally, Owens has worked as a reporter/public affairs producer for WCIA-TV and WPGU-FM (Champaign, Ill.); she has held journalism residencies at WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC), Voice of America, Radio News Division (D.C.), the Department of Defense American Forces Press and Publications Service, and at the Charlotte Observer, Chicago Tribune, and New York Amsterdam newspapers. She has worked in several leadership positions with the Broadcast Education Association, including its Publications Board member and Gender Issues Division president. She has worked as a consultant on curriculum development and program assessment projects. Additionally, Owens has held fellowships with the International Radio Television Society Foundation, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, Radio-Television News Directors Foundation, American Society of Newspaper Editors, and the Poynter Institute. Professor Owens completed the 2018 Higher Education Service Resources (HERS) Leadership Institute at Bryn Mawr College. She has represented the College of Business as a Writing Across the Curriculum Ambassador and contributed to the Senate Bill-1 Faculty Online Writing Handbook. She has served on numerous committees at Murray State, including the provost search committee, College of Business graduate programs, the tenure and faculty development committees, and the Jesse Stuart Fellowship selection committee. Owens served on the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education dissertation awards committee, 2010-2011. Dr. Owens has previously served as interim department chair (2016-2018), graduate program director, internship coordinator, sequence head for the electronic media majors, coordinator of the student editorial advisory board for MSU-TV 11, and as co-advisor for Murray State's chapter of the National Broadcasting Society/Alpha Epsilon Rho. She belongs to several academic honor societies, including Alpha Epsilon Rho, Kappa Tau Alpha, and Phi Kappa Phi. | Education: Ph.D., University of Florida M.S., Journalism, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign B.A., English Literature, Cum Laude, CUNY-Brooklyn College Certificate, Gerontology, University of Florida | Research Interests: Her research interests include mass media and social construction, audience analysis of race, ethnicity and culture in media, and media portrayals of gender and aging. She presented audience analysis research at the 2008 Oxford Roundtable at Exeter College, England. In 2009, she presented a communications symposium at the University of the Gambia, West Africa, and conducted a journalism workshop for members of the Gambian Press Union. | Accolades: Dr. Owens participated in the 2013 Time Warner College Professors Leadership Seminar in New York. In 2010, she was a Visiting Scholar at Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. In 2008, she was honored for her distinguished serve for contributions to student programs and activities at Murray State. A past-vice president of the Murray State Black Faculty Staff Association, she received the organization’s 2008 and 2010 Faculty Scholarship and Teaching Award and and its Excellence in Service Award for 2008 and 2015. A recipient of the Key to the City of Murray in 2004, Owens was also recognized for service by the Murray-Calloway County NAACP Branch. She has been honored as a 2003 Advisory Board Member for Black College Radio. She is listed in Cambridge Who’s Who 2006-2007. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. | Courses: JMC 600-Seminar in International Mass Communications JMC 601-Media, Culture, Gender and Race JMC 610-Introduction to Graduate Studies in Mass Communications JMC 685-Specialized Mass Communication JMC 690-Comprehensive Project

Dr. Melony Shemberger is an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at Murray State University. Shemberger has published in several peer-reviewed publications, including Journalism History, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, and the Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication Journal. She also has several book chapters published or forthcoming and professional articles in several guidebooks published by the PR News Press, as well as the Journal of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. She has presented at several academic and professional conferences, as either an invited speaker or accepted author. She received the Outstanding Research Award in the College of Business in 2017 for her scholarly activities. Her primary research interests include journalism and media history, the scholarship of teaching and learning, sunshine laws, community journalism, media literacy, and crisis communication. In 2017, Shemberger was a Scripps Howard Academic Leadership Academy Fellow at Louisiana State University. She was among a dozen other rising journalism faculty in the United States selected to advance their leadership training in the academy. In 2014, Shemberger was named a Business Journalism Professors Seminar Fellow. One of 14 faculty members from across the nation, she completed her fellowship at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix. At Murray State, she was a Provost Faculty Teaching Fellow, presenting workshops and writing articles that focused on pedagogy and course redesign. She also was interim director of the Faculty Development Center in 2016 and past vice president of the Faculty Senate. In addition to teaching at Murray State, Shemberger teaches in the Governor's Scholars Program. Prior to teaching in 2013 at Murray State, she served eight years as the assistant director of communication in the public relations and marketing office at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Her PR work was honored by two groups, the Tennessee College Public Relations Association and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. She also was adjunct faculty in the APSU Department of Communication, APSU College of Business, and Murray State College of Education. Before entering academia, Shemberger had successful, award-winning reporting careers at newspapers and radio stations, specializing in the education and court beats. She continues to cover the education beat on a freelance basis. Since 2000, she has received many reporting and page design awards from the Kentucky Press Association. She is a lifetime member of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the top academic interdisciplinary honor society in the nation and on campus, where she serves as Murray State’s vice president. In addition, she was a director from 2016-18 on the Society’s national board, leading as chair of the advisory council for Phi Kappa Phi’s Forum magazine. She also holds memberships in the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society and several academic discipline-specific honor societies. She is a member of the American Journalism Historians Association and the Education Writers Association. Shemberger has a bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University, where she double majored in mass communication, and history and government; a master’s in mass communication from Murray State; a master’s in management from Austin Peay; and a doctorate in administration and supervision, with a concentration in higher education, from Tennessee State University. She is pursuing additional graduate studies in instructional systems design at the University of Kentucky. | Education: Ed.D., Higher Education Administration and Supervision, Tennessee State University, Dissertation: "The Presence of Sunshine Laws in Journalism Curriculum: Qualitative Insights" M.S., Management, Austin Peay State University M.S., Mass Communication, Murray State University (Outstanding Graduate Student Award) B.A., double major in Mass Communication, History and Government, Western Kentucky University | Research Interests: Journalism and media history, Scholarship of teaching and learning, Community journalism, Media literacy, Sunshine laws, Crisis communication and other public relations topics | Courses: Undergraduate: In-depth Reporting, Contemporary Mass Media, News Writing, News Editing, Opinion Writing, Feature Writing, Special Topics (Business Journalism, Freelance), Journalism Capstone. Graduate: American Media History, Strategic Communications, Mass Media Industries.