Smith named Overby Middle for Southern Journalism and Politics Fellow

Dr. Marquita Smith, affiliate professor and assistant dean for graduate packages within the Faculty of Journalism and New Media on the College of Mississippi, has been named a Fellow on the Overby Middle for Southern Journalism and Politics on the College of Mississippi, Middle Chairman Charles Overby introduced as we speak.

“Marquita brings to us a formidable mix {of professional} expertise and educational accomplishment,” Overby mentioned. “Her work alerts a broader curiosity within the media’s function in democracy.”

Smith’s function on the middle will focus totally on creating the Mississippi Democracy Dashboard, a set of knowledge designed to assist customers improve their political engagement.

“The Democracy Dashboard will spotlight tendencies in governance, significantly; democratic participation and voting; institutional functioning within the govt, legislative, and judicial branches; and maybe media capability,” Smith mentioned.

The dashboard is an effort to assist strengthen group engagement within the political course of whereas additionally serving as a useful resource to smaller native media shops. It is going to be a non-partisan useful resource.

Smith joined the college on the College of Mississippi in 2020 from John Brown College, the place she was an affiliate professor of journalism and the division chair for Communication and Effective Arts. Whereas at JBU, she served because the inaugural coordinator of variety relations and helped implement the college’s first variety, fairness and inclusion strategic plans. She was additionally a U.S. Fulbright Scholar on the College of Ghana, Legon.

Previous to transitioning from the newsroom to the academy, Smith labored for greater than a decade as a pupil media advisor and was an adjunct professor at two traditionally Black establishments, Norfolk State College in Norfolk, Virginia, and Hampton College in Hampton, Virginia. She is a well-published, award-winning trainer, and her management in journalism schooling is well-known.

Along with her educational achievement, she has vital skilled expertise.

She was a bureau chief for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia.; the Go editor who coordinated/edited a staff of seven reporters ready to deploy in a disaster from a number of bureaus; and the Portsmouth metropolis editor and interim metropolis editor for Chesapeake.

Throughout her years with The Virginian-Pilot, she was named a Knight Worldwide Journalism Fellow to Liberia, offering hands-on coaching, workshops and seminars to assist media play an energetic function within the redevelopment of the nation.

She was assistant metropolis editor at The Montgomery Advertiser in Montgomery, Alabama; an city affairs reporter on the Lexington Herald Chief in Lexington, Kentucky; a faith and schooling reporter at The Solar Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi, and a basic project reporter on the Knight-Ridder, Washington, D.C. bureau.

She is a senior advisor and proprietor of MQ Communications, which designs coaching packages for brand spanking new journalists, or specialised persevering with schooling programs for present media operations. Main coaching sometimes includes newsgathering, writing, assignments, capturing, enhancing and producing.

The agency additionally gives corporations with variety coaching and instruments they should improve their communications capability and use high-impact strategic campaigns to attain their objectives.

Smith has a Doctorate in Larger Training from the College of Arkansas in Fayetteville, a Grasp of Arts in Journalism from the College of Maryland in Faculty Park, and a Bachelor of Science in Communications from the College of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 2021, Smith was named Alumna of the 12 months of UT’s Faculty of Journalism and Digital Media.

Most not too long ago she was acknowledged because the Information Leaders Affiliation’s 2022 recipient of the Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship, “which acknowledges an educator’s excellent efforts to encourage college students of coloration within the discipline of journalism.”

The Overby Middle for Southern Journalism and Politics was based in 2007 by way of a grant from the Freedom Discussion board. The middle options packages, multimedia shows and publications exploring the advanced relationships between politicians and the press, with a concentrate on Southern views.

Tags: featured, Marquita Smith, Ole Miss, Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, Oxford, University of Mississippi, University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media