Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Schmeltzer joined the journalism faculty as the Engleman/Livermore Professor in Community Journalism. The Engleman/Livermore Professorship was established by Charles and Jean Engleman and Ed Livermore, Sr. to support the development of future publishers and leaders in community journalism. Schmeltzer held numerous positions during his 35-year career at the Chicago Tribune from political writer during the mid-1970s to assistant business editor in 2008. He was instrumental in expanding the readership of the Tribune by developing a suburban version of the newspaper for which he served as associate metropolitan editor from 1976 to 1991. From 1997 to 2003, he covered the aerospace industry and covered many of the events that led to the Tribune being awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. In recent years, Schmeltzer has worked to expand readership through social media and online newspaper editions. In addition to the Pulitzer, Schmeltzer also was a finalist for the UCLA Anderson School of Management Gerald Loeb Award for business journalism, three awards from the Chicago Headliner Club and was awarded the Distinguished Service award from his alma mater, Northern Illinois University in 2002.

Kathleen Johnson joined the Gaylord College’s faculty as the McMahon Centennial Professor.  The McMahon professorship was the first endowed position for the journalism program at OU and was funded in 1989 by the McMahon Foundation of Lawton.  The McMahon professorship enables the college to attract experienced professionals to train the next generation of broadcast journalists. A 1987 telecommunication graduate from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Johnson brings with her more than 20 years of award-winning experience in top executive, programming, production, communications, and marketing positions in broadcast, network, cable, satellite, and new media.  She worked as a producer with increasing degrees of responsibility for several NBC television stations in Tulsa, Florida and Washington, D.C. from 1986 to 1998 and has worked as an executive in the satellite television industry. She has received a national Emmy nomination and four regional Emmy awards as well as seven Telly awards for her work in children’s television and for long-format newcasts. She is also the recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Director Association.

Robert Pritchard joins Professor David Tarpenning in overseeing the new student-run advertising and public relations agency at the college, which began in August 2009 in the new wing of Gaylord Hall. Pritchard is a 1974 business administration graduate of Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma and graduated in 1988 with a master’s of art in public relations from Ball State University in Indiana. Pritchard has more than 20 years experience as a public affairs officer in the U.S. Navy and seven years’ experience as faculty adviser for the Ball State public relations and advertising agency, Cardinal Communications. Pritchard has also been very active in the Public Relations Society of America and has served as faculty adviser for the student chapter at Ball State. He currently serves on the PRSA College of Fellows and the Educational Affairs Committee.

Veteran and award-winning network news correspondent Mike Boettcher joins the faculty as a visiting professor. Boettcher is a Ponca City, Oklahoma native and a former journalism student at the University of Oklahoma. He was honored as one of the Gaylord College’s Distinguished Alumni in 2003. Boettcher has been recognized as one of the world’s most experienced foreign correspondents, covering wars and revolutions in every part of the globe. He was the first correspondent to make a live satellite report for CNN in 1980. Boettcher has made a career of reporting on terrorism around the world for NBC and CNN. In 2008 he left NBC to start a private venture, NoIgnoring.com, serving as a full-time embedded reporter in Afghanistan and Iraq. While embedded he co-taught a course on War and Media at OU via satellite uplink from Afghanistan and Iraq. He is currently writing a book about Al Qaeda titled The Network. Most recently, Boettcher was working for ABC News this summer while embedded with an Army unit in Afghanistan. Boettcher has received three National Headliner Awards, four national Emmy’s and a Peabody Award for his work.