Some background info on your instructor

Dr. Julie E. Dodd is a professor in the Journalism Department. In addition to teaching Writing for Mass Communication (MMC 2100), she teaches (MMC 6930) and works with graduate students.

She helped develop two online courses for the Poynter Institute's News University, an online training site. Reporting Across Platforms and Video Storytelling for the Web are two of the courses that are part of Poynter's multimedia certificate program. You can register for a free account at http://newsu.org

Dodd serves on the College Faculty Senate and was chair of the college's first senate. She has served on the college's Shared Governance, Curriculum, Technology, and Faculty Development and Diversity committees. At the university level, she has served on the UF Faculty Senate, the University Center for Excellence in Teaching, and the General Education Council that reviews courses that request designation as General Education courses.

Since elementary school days, Dodd has been involved with newspapers. She became interested in newspapers during a family vacation to Williamsburg, Va., where she learned about the printing process. She saw printers working on an early printing press, much like the one on the second floor in Weimer Hall.

She worked on the sixth grade newspaper at her elementary school and then on the newspaper staffs in junior high and high school. She was on the newspaper staff during her undergraduate years at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., serving as editor her senior year.

She earned a bachelor's degree in English and English Education at Transylvania and a master's degree in Communications and a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Kentucky.

Dodd was a sports writer for The Oak Ridger (Oak Ridge, Tenn.), writing a column about health and fitness. In addition, she has worked in public relations for school districts in Lexington, Ky., and Oak Ridge, Tenn., and served as director of the Kentucky High School Press Association and the Kentucky High School Speech League at the University of Kentucky. A high school journalism and English teacher, Dodd advised student newspapers and yearbooks in Kentucky and Tennessee.

She has taught in summer journalism workshops at Indiana University, Ohio University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Tennessee and Western Kentucky University.

She was the 1996 Teacher of the Year for the College of Journalism and Communications and received two TIP Awards (1993, 1996) for excellence in teaching at UF. She received the Journalism Educator Award (1999) from the Scholastic Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

She has had articles published in Newspaper Research Journal, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Editor & Publisher, Quill and Scroll, and Communication: Journalism Education Today.

From 1988-1999 , Dodd was executive director of the Florida Scholastic Press Association, a not-for-profit organization with more than 400 member high school and middle school publications and broadcast programs. She may know your adviser if you were on a high school publication or broadcast staff.

Her work in scholastic journalism earned her the Carl Towley Award and the Medal of Merit from the Journalism Education Association, the Paschal Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association, the Gold Medallion from the Florida Scholastic Press Association, and the National Scholastic Press Association's Pioneer Award.

She is on the board of trustees for Quill and Scroll International. The organization was created by George Gallup, who developed the Gallup survey process. The organization is housed at the University of Iowa.

Dodd also serves on the board of the Journalism Education Association, housed at Kansas State University. She is the liaison between the JEA board and scholastic press association directors nationwide. She is co-chair of the JEA Mentoring Committee, which matches current and recently retired high school journalism teachers with new journalism teachers. As part of that program, Dodd mentors two of her former MMC 2100 students who are now high school journalism teachers -- one in Gainesville and one in the Bronx. She serves on the JEA Digital Media Committee and has served on JEA's Multicultural Commission and Certification Commission.

She served for two years as head of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's Scholastic Journalism Division, helping plan the division's sessions at national conventions in Miami Beach (2002) and Kansas City (2003).