EDUCATION

• M.A. Public Affairs Journalism
  The American University, Washington, D.C.
• B.A. Journalism
  University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

BACKGROUND

Nicholson’s School career spans more than 35 years of teaching, scholarship and service to the academy and journalism and in academic administration. She retired from VCU in 2019. Nicholson’s passion is educating students especially and professionals to produce depth narrative stories and projects about significant issues across communities and borders. In her undergraduate capstones, those stories focused on government and policy, urban affairs, health, science, business, criminal justice, the environment and social issues, among the specializations, with the foundational principles of truth, accuracy and excellence in storytelling always as the underpinning.

Nicholson led in developing courses and programs for undergraduate and graduate students that enhance cross-cultural and multicultural understanding. She developed and taught for a decade the School’s graduate International Journalism course in the M.S. program in Multimedia Journalism. She created and taught for years an innovative and interdisciplinary undergraduate course in International Media Coverage: The Middle East. That course in many semesters was offered as part of the VCU Honors Program. Nicholson also helped develop and co-taught the School’s China Study Abroad courses that allowed graduate and undergraduate students to travel to China to study the practice of journalism and media. She helped spearhead other international opportunities for students.

Nicholson joined the faculty after more than a dozen years as an award winning journalist in North Carolina and Virginia. She was a general assignment and city hall reporter for the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer for four years. In Richmond, Va., she worked for almost a decade as a statehouse reporter—as Capitol bureau chief for the Alexandria Gazette, founder and editor of the Virginia News Service that served medium and small newspapers, and for the Richmond bureau of a national wire service. Two years after joining the faculty, Nicholson became assistant director of the program, taking on the first of a number of administrative roles.

Nicholson served as acting director, associate director over many years, associate director of graduate studies and for a decade director of graduate studies. In that position, she managed the School’s two professional M.S. programs in Mass Communications: one a concentration in Multimedia Journalism and the other a concentration in Strategic Public Relations. She provided support for the innovative interdisciplinary Ph.D program at VCU in Media, Art and Text. Overall, she helped transform the School’s undergraduate and graduate curricula and forward vision of the School.

Nicholson has been a leader in the Society of Professional Journalists, which is known for advocacy for the First Amendment and press freedom. She developed and/or has been a participant in dozens of professional development seminars for national SPJ. She chaired two of the national society’s committees: Journalism Education—for seven years—and International Journalism. She served as a member of the Professional Development Committee for a decade.

She is former president of the Virginia Professional SPJ chapter. Nicholson has also conducted workshops and seminars for the Association for Education in Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, the National Communication Association and a number of other academic and professional groups in the United States and abroad. Nicholson has written for professional publications about the teaching of journalism, diversity, news practices and written refereed or juried book chapters.

She conceptualized and was lead editor for a book The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press, published in 2009 by the University of Illinois Press. More than two dozen female editors, journalists and a renowned anthropologist contributed. That volume broadly examined the status, challenges and future for women in journalism. The book elevated the discussion of the role and impact of women and diversity in newsrooms and companies, and on coverage. It was the subject of a 2-day seminar at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a premier think tank and training institute for journalists.

Subsequently, Nicholson worked extensively with the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University on a conference led by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman to further address challenges and industry trends for women in news. Some 125 top editors and news executives attended. Her scholarship has advanced knowledge about the challenges in journalism for women and diverse peoples in the United States and abroad.

Nicholson contributed to a number of promotion and tenure cases and to School and University policies. In the School, she was known for mentoring junior and senior faculty through these processes and other facets of their career. She is former chair of the College of Humanities and Sciences Promotion and Tenure Committee, served on the VCU Task Force on Promotion and Tenure and is a former member of the University Promotion and Tenure Policy Advisory Committee.

Nicholson’s additional service to VCU has been extensive. She is former president of the College of Humanities and Sciences Faculty Council. Perhaps her most visible and influential role was as Faculty Senate president (includes the VCU Monroe Park and Medical Center campuses) from 2013-2015. She was the University faculty representative to the Board of Visitors 2015-17.

Nicholson worked strategically to help position the Senate to be more fully integrated into the policy-and-decision-making of the University. That occurred in partnership with the University administration.

COURSES TAUGHT

Undergraduate:

• MASC 203 Writing for Media (some honors sections)
• MASC 303 General Assignment Reporting
• MASC 305 Copy Editing
• MASC 359 International Media Coverage: the Middle East
• Honors 399 (1.5-credits)
• MASC 403 Advanced Reporting (capstone)
• MASC 404 Specialized/Project Reporting (capstone)
• MASC 491 Topics Covering Contemporary China (one honors section); Covering State Government
• MASC 492 Independent Study (some honors sections)
• MASC 495 Journalism Seminar (capstone)

Graduate:

• MASC 613 Mass Media and Society
• MASC 615 Depth Reporting
• MASC 686 International Journalism
• MASC 691 Topics (some honors sections)
• MASC 692 Independent Study
• MASC 683/002 Strategic PR in a Global Environment (Study Abroad and other sections)
• MASC 695 Fieldwork/Internships

SCHOLARSHIP/RESEARCH INTERESTS

News company and newsroom leadership; long-form project, investigative and explanatory journalism across specializations; education of professional journalists; innovation in news practices; the evolution and role of women in news; coverage of national, state and local government and policy; international journalism; diversity and inclusion

AFFILIATIONS

• AEJMC
• Investigative Reporters and Editors
• National Society of Professional Journalists
• Virginia Professional SPJ Chapter
• Online Journalism Association

AWARDS (selected)

• 2019 University Distinguished Service Award (academic and professional leadership and
  service)
• 2016, one of seven inductees into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. This signature recognition honors individuals for distinguished careers in journalism and communications.
• AEJMC 2014 Outstanding Woman in Journalism and Mass Communication Education
• 2008 AEJMC national Robert Knight Multicultural Award
• 2007 VCU College of Humanities and Sciences’ Distinguished Service Award
• 1985 Virginia Professional Communicators (formerly VPW) Communicator of the Year