In a series of interviews, College of Journalism and Mass Communications alumni highlight the importance of skills they first learned at the college and still practice in their roles today.
Jeff Salem went into college knowing he’d take the news editorial track, convinced he’d be a reporter for the rest of his life.
“I was a traditional journalism student,” Salem said. “I had some success in high school, being on the student newspaper, and it was the first time in school where I thought ‘I’m oddly looking forward to this class.’”
Those high school experiences led Salem to the realization that journalism was something out of which he could make a career. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and later graduated in 2008. His first job post-graduation was in Kansas City as a government reporter at Sun News. Two years into that role, he was promoted to news editor.
In 2010, Salem and his wife, expecting their first child, decided to move back to Lincoln. The month they moved back, the Lincoln Journal Star didn’t have any openings, so he pivoted and began an 11-year journey at Swanson Russell, starting as a public relations associate.
Initially nervous about starting a job in a seemingly different industry, Salem quickly realized that his journalistic training and approach to storytelling as a reporter gave him the potential to succeed in public relations.
“Everything I learned at Nebraska was centered around understanding my audience,” Salem said. “Communications, storytelling and journalism are all built on the same foundation of taking complex ideas and making them approachable for your audience.”
Four years into his initial role at Swanson Russell, he was promoted to public relations counsel then senior public relations counsel. In 2021, Salem left Swanson Russell and joined the Arbor Day Foundation as their senior public relations and media manager. In 2022, he was promoted to director of communications and public relations, a role he still holds today.
“When I'm building teams and looking for teammates, I love former journalists because they can think like a journalist and that's who we ultimately are trying to tell stories with,” Salem said. “You can become a really dynamic PR professional once you understand that it’s not about pitching a story you want to tell, it’s the story the reporter wants to tell.”
Alum Steve Smith had a similar start in his career. After graduating from the CoJMC in 1994, he started his first reporting role at the Iowa City Press-Citizen, where he covered the courts, the police and education. Through 2001, he continued his reporting career, moving to California to work at the Visalia Times-Delta and the San Bernardino County Sun and then to Nevada to work for the Reno Gazette-Journal.
In 2001, Smith returned to Lincoln and became the online editor for the Lincoln Journal Star. In 2005, he used his reporting background to write and publish a memoir, “Forever Red: Confessions of A Cornhusker Football Fan,” with the University of Nebraska Press.
Smith’s love for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln propelled him into a role as the UNL national news editor in 2009. In 2013, he was named news director and spokesman for the University.
Today, Smith is the director of communications for Civic Nebraska, a role he first began in 2018 after nine years at the University. He often reflects on his time at the J school. It’s where Smith learned how to write a lead, how to edit video and how to do an intro on the radio. He also learned a number of soft skills he wasn’t even aware he was learning at the time.
“The soft skills are the ones you don’t even realize you’ve learned until after you graduate, like the ability to perceive the world in a much more comprehensive manner,” Smith said. “That’s the enduring value of a journalism education—by nature, journalism kind of forces you out of your comfort zone, and that's where the growth begins.”
To Smith, a good journalist has that innate sense of fairness, empathy and especially curiosity. Storytellers can’t help but want to ask the next question.
“As a journalist, you enter other people's worlds, and you're tasked with understanding their opinions, their perspectives, their sensibilities, and then trying to synthesize what you've learned with the larger world,” Smith said. “I mean, that's a really powerful skill to learn because it has value anywhere, not just in newsprint or on the airwaves. You can do just about anything and thrive in just about any work environment.”
Jana McGuire worked as a reporter and anchor for four years in radio and television news in Lincoln, St. Joseph, MO, and Omaha after graduating from CoJMC in 1986. Following her final reporting role as Lincoln bureau chief/reporter for KMTV Channel 3 in 1990, she took a job in the UNL public relations office as a communications specialist and began to pursue her M.A. in professional journalism at the J School.
“It took some time to wrap my head around the transition from telling both sides of a story as a journalist – being an objective third-party – to crafting stories with a defined narrative as a public relations specialist,” McGuire said.
Initially, McGuire worked as a video and radio producer in her role at the university, but the job quickly expanded into more. During those 17 years, she honed her journalistic skills as a writer for print, web and broadcast, as a copy editor, and as a specialist in media and public relations and crisis management.
“As a journalist, you’re writing and producing stories for a general audience, but in public relations, there are a variety of audiences that require different messages and platforms,” McGuire said. “I overcame these challenges with on-the-job experience, observation of others’ work and leaning on the talented PR experts around me for guidance.”
After McGuire received her M.A. in 1996, she started freelancing and began teaching broadcast courses at the CoJMC and technical communications at the UNL Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Business Management.
In March 2013, McGuire became the senior account director at public relations consulting firm Look East, based in Kansas City. Today in her role at Look East, her writing is focused on the company’s value of building trust, whether it’s a proposal or video script, social media or promotional copy, news releases or thought leadership articles.
“I lean on the skills I developed as a broadcast journalist every day,” McGuire said. “The curiosity I developed and love for telling concise, engaging, accurate stories helps me serve clients and colleagues in a meaningful way – and do it quickly if needed.”
Like McGuire, alums Natalie Johnson (‘97) and Barry Kriha (‘93) studied broadcast journalism while at the CoJMC.
Johnson also majored in advertising. In her first post-grad role, she used the skills she had acquired from both majors as a production assistant at Time Warner Cable, before advancing to roles as a marketing specialist in 2006 and marketing manager in 2010.
Shortly after Time Warner Cable changed ownership and became Charter Communications in 2016, Johnson started a new marketing strategist role at Ameritas. In 2022, Johnson started a new role at Firespring as their director of marketing acquisition, and that’s where she is still today.
“Throughout my career, I've had to write in different tones, and the common thread that has carried me through everything is the journalistic skills I first developed at the college,” Johnson said. “Specifically, the value of succinct writing–getting to your point and doing it succinctly.”
After graduating in 1993, Kriha worked as a reporter for six years, first in Kearney at KHGI-TV, then at KOLN 10/11 News in Lincoln and then at KMTV Omaha. In 2000, Kriha transitioned to public relations, joining human resources consulting firm Robert Half International as a district public relations manager. He then moved to Envoy, an advertising agency in Omaha, as a public relations manager, in 2002.
“Having a journalism background allows me to ‘find that story’ that is hidden in our company, and then be able to tell it to our customers, which then gives us an advantage over our competitors,” Kriha said. “I still have copies of the AP Style Guide and the Chicago Manual of Style at my desk, which I look at at least a couple of times a month.”
Kriha took his journalism and PR skills back to the broadcasting industry in 2003 when he started a new role as an account executive at KETV, where he managed a $2 million account list. In 2007, Kriha became a senior account executive and broadcast producer at Ervin & Smith before moving to InfiNet Solutions as their director of sales and marketing in 2009.
In 2011, Kriha moved back into the broadcast business, to lead a marketing research team as the vice president of marketing research and analytics for RFD-TV, working with such brands as John Deere, Case IH, Ford, as well as setting two Guinness Book of World records. He then became the senior vice president of marketing at the Plastilite Corporation in 2015. In 2017, he started a four-year stint in Lincoln as the global marketing communications director for Teledyne ISCO. Today, Kriha is back in Omaha as the director of marketing, communications and branding at Mead Lumber in Omaha.
“If you had told me when I graduated that I’d be where I am today, I would have said no way,” Kriha said. “It’s because of the experiences I’ve had in those journalistic roles and what I learned at the College of Journalism that I’m where I am today.”
While attending the CoJMC, alumna Mindy Burbach worked part-time as a production assistant for KOLN 10/11 News. When she graduated in 2011, she was offered a full-time position at the station.
Before graduating, Burbach was part of a depth-reporting course for news-editorial and broadcasting students that put together a magazine and documentary called “Reflections on the Little Bighorn, 125 Years Later.”
“The skills I was learning in classes were immediately put to use in the field when I first started at 10/11.” Burbach said. “The class really set the stage for my transition out of broadcasting and into communications.”
Burbach worked her way through various roles in production, journalism and creative services during her time at 10/11. Then, in 2005, she took a role as the communications director for Scottsbluff Public Schools, which allowed her family to move back to the Nebraska Panhandle.
“It is a little different mindset going from a news organization to a public relations or communication role for an organization, but the mission still remains,” Burbach said. “I feel it is important as a communications professional to be as transparent as possible and provide factual information to help others comprehend the message you are trying to convey.”
Burbach was the college relations director for Western Nebraska Community College from 2008 to 2010, before joining Platte Valley Companies, an integrated financial and insurance firm, as an assistant vice president/corporate director of marketing.
In 2015, Burbach moved back to Lincoln and back into education when she joined Lincoln Public Schools as a communications specialist. In 2017, she was promoted to communications coordinator and in 2019, she was named the executive director of communications for LPS.
Burbach credits her schooling at the CoJMC and her time in broadcast news for her appreciation for journalists and her understanding of how tough the job can be.
“It’s why my team and I work as hard as we can to make a reporter’s job as easy as possible when they are interested in a story at Lincoln Public Schools,” Burbach said. “I think we have great relationships built on trust with our local journalists, and in turn, they help us share important stories and messages with the community.”
Alumna Liz Austin credits her journalism education to leading her to pursuing a law degree. While at the CoJMC she covered the courts and legislature for the Daily Nebraskan and that’s when she knew.
“Quite frankly I thought ‘I can do better than they can,’ and I have to say by and large when I was in journalism school it was pretty much all men in the courtroom,” Austin said. “So certainly, being a journalism student piqued my interest in the law and I think it kind of paved my way for the path to becoming a lawyer.”
Austin graduated from the college in 1979 then immediately started law school at UNL. After a 30+ year career in law, specializing in business bankruptcy, creditor's rights and commercial litigation for Pullman & Comley, she retired in 2020.
“Journalism in general certainly gave me the basic tools on how to get somebody's story to find out what really happened and how I can best help them, can represent them and achieve their goals through the courts or through mediation or through negotiation,” Austin said.
The majority of Austin’s career was spent in Conneticut and New York City. She still lives there today and continues to use the skills she learned as a journalism student in retirement as a stand-up comedian. She’s performed with fellow clean comics Danny Chang, Jim Gaffigan and Jerry Seinfeld.
“It's more of a hobby than a career but I'm having a good time,” Austin said. “Maybe it'll develop into something, I would love to write for a sitcom or something like that—we'll see where it goes.”
These alumni stand as a testament to the versatility and enduring relevance of a journalism education. Their career journeys serve as a reminder of the bridge where journalism's fundamental and ethical values meet the demands of a rapidly evolving world.