Spring Communication Seminar Brings Television, Newspaper, Industry Professionals to Campus

The Taylor Communication Department will host Pursuing Excellence, an annual spring seminar for students in the communications field on Thursday, April 19. The seminar features four guest speakers from industry and newspapers to television: David Chamberlin, Kari Travis, Zeke Turner, and Fanchon Stinger.

Stinger is a 14-time Emmy winner and evening news co-anchor for Fox 59 News in Indianapolis. She has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press and the United States Department of Heath and Human Services. Stinger graduated from the University of Michigan in 1993 with an English and communications degree.

Turner is the CEO of Mainstreet, Indianapolis, Indiana, one of the country's largest developers of healthcare properties. He graduated from Taylor in 2000 with degrees in international business and business administration/systems.

Travis is associate editor at the Carolina Journal in Raleigh, North Carolina. She reports on human trafficking, law enforcement, transportation, and higher education policy issues across the state. She was recently named recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship, which grants to fund a year-long investigative journalism project. Travis graduated from Taylor in 2014 with professional writing and political science degrees and served as co-editor-in-chief of The Echo during her senior year.

Chamberlin, a 1994 Taylor alumnus, is senior vice president and chief communications officer at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In his role at PNC, Chamberlin oversees a $35 million budget and a 90-person team. Prior to PNC, Chamberlin served as GM of Edelman’s Dallas office, and was also global head of the firm’s data security and privacy group between 2012 and 2015. Earlier in his career, he ran Edelman’s Shanghai, China, office. He has also worked for MSLGroup as SVP and director, issues and crisis management; for JPMorgan Chase as head of PR and partner communications; and for Nortel as director of global communications. Chamberlin’s degree was in public relations and he served as editor and sports editor of Taylor’s student newspaper, The Echo.

Communication students will be excused from classes for that morning. Sessions will be held in classrooms in the Rupp and Metcalf buildings on the Taylor campus.

Schedule:

8:30–8:55 am: Registration

9–9:50 am: Fanchon Stinger: Professionalism and Integrity

10–11 am: Zeke Turner: Creating a Culture of Excellence

11–11:25 am: Break

Breakout Sessions: 11:30 am–12:30 pm

• Breakout Session for Professional Writing: Kari Travis—Writing Beyond Taylor
• Breakout Session for Journalism: Fanchon Stinger—Media Bias
• Breakout Session for Public Relations: David Chamberlin—Crisis Management and Communication
• Breakout Session for Strategic Communication: Zeke Turner—Communication Barriers and Conflict Resolution