Jena Heath, Associate Dean Arts & Humanities, Prof. Journalism & Digital Media, Coordinator Journalism and Digital Media minor and Program Director Digital Storytelling and Content Creation major.
Professor Heath spent 20 years in newsrooms as a reporter and editor before joining the St. Edward's University faculty in 2008. As a reporter, she covered cops, courts, local and state government and the 2000 Bush campaign and White House. As an editor, she supervised teams of education reporters at two Texas newspapers, covering public schools and higher education. Journalism and Digital Media students at St. Edward's analyze and think critically about the news. They also learn to report and produce stories for today's digital newsrooms. Professor Heath helps students learn professional skills and secure internships, jobs post- graduation and admission to elite graduate journalism programs. Her research work focuses on oral history and digital storytelling by the Chinese adoption community here at Our China Stories.
St. Edward's University Journalism and Digital Media students are learning highly transferable and in-demand digital skills. They are landing internships and jobs and heading off to the best graduate programs in the country. As important, they are learning to be discerning and engaged news consumers. Join us!
Presentations on Our China Stories, an oral history and digital storytelling project, at the April 2018 Texas Oral History Association conference at Texas A&M University and the Sixth Biennial Conference for the Alliance of the Study of Adoption and Culture, October 2016, Minneapolis.
Delivered paper, “The Most Difficult Story: Covering Suicide on College Campuses,” with co-author Brooke Blanton, at the research panel of the national conference of the College Media Association, March 2013, and at the national conference, March 2015, NYC.
Humane, intelligent societies have the courage to tell their stories and to read, hear and watch the stories of others. Journalists tell these stories. I teach because I believe in Journalism and because there has never been a time when understanding and practicing it well has been more important. I also like my students a lot.