Todd brings passion for journalism and teaching to USI

Journalism is Phil Todd’s bread and butter.

USI’s new Instructor in Journalism and Student Publications Advisor has years of experience educating students—both in higher education and K-12 settings—of the ins and outs of news coverage and journalism writing. His resume is filled with appointments at various universities in the Midwest—University of Oklahoma, St. Gregory’s University, University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University among others.

So why USI? It was a combination of things fitting just right to make the opportunity happen, Todd says.

“This job position popped up really late, but I knew Evansville,” he explains. “It is three hours from my folks, close to Louisville. And this position was more fitted to me because it involves both teaching and advising.”

Todd came to USI at the beginning of the 2023 Fall Semester, and the road that brought him here was a long one. His teaching career began in the early 1990s as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, Kentucky. From there, Todd complemented his resume with adjunct instructor positions at Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, Kentucky), and Spencerian College (Lexington, Kentucky).

His dive into journalism instruction began in the early 2000s when he became an assistant professor of journalism and public relations at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. There, his students’ university paper, The Bison, won multiple awards for student work as well as grew in size and frequency.

Todd has spent time at various other Oklahoma universities, colleges and K-12 schools through the years, passing on not only his knowledge for journalism and all the caveats of the industry, but his passion for it as well. Then, in 2014, his life unfortunately changed.

“My late wife passed away in 2014 after battling cancer. And I promised our two daughters I wouldn’t change careers or move us until they graduated high school,” says Todd. “It was a tough time.”

But the family worked through it, and Todd kept his promise to his girls. He continued to pursue positions in journalism teaching, published multiple articles, presented at various conferences on journalism ethics and other industry topics and earned several professional awards and honors—in 2020, Penn State presented him with the Davis Ethics Award for his ethics-related mass media dissertation as part of his work to earn his doctorate in mass communication from the University of Oklahoma. And when his youngest daughter graduated high school in spring 2023, he knew it was time to look at finding a new full-time position.

“I thought I would be able to find another full-time teaching position easily, but nothing was opening up in Oklahoma. So, I widened the net, started looking in Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky,” he explains. “I had always meant to make my way back to Kentucky, and it felt like it was time.”

After discussions with his wife, Heather, Todd applied at USI and found himself with a new opportunity to guide and teach students interested in journalism.

“When they offered me the position, I said I absolutely wanted to come here,” he says. “There’s great students here at USI, and great facilities as well as great colleagues.”

Coming into a new university with the Fall Semester on his heels has been a process, he admits, especially getting acquainted with the staff of The Shield and fitting into his faculty role. However, he says it’s been exciting.

He spent the majority of his first weeks in Evansville getting settled; trips back to Oklahoma on the weekends have been a regular fixture as Todd and Heather moved in. And as the semester moves on, heading toward finals and winter break, he still feels like USI has been the right choice for him.

“I love teaching,” he says. “I was very impressed with the things I saw online from The Shield, and it’s a great opportunity to be here teaching and working with these students. I knew when I applied this was going to be a great place for me.”  

For more information on The Shield, USI’s student-run publication, visit usishield.com. To learn more about the College of Liberal Arts Journalism program, visit the Communication and Media at USI page.