Dr. C, as he is known by students, is a popular choice on university campuses and conferences as a motivational speaker on student leadership, child advocacy issues, community development, and African American culture. Dr. Conway enjoys a national reputation in the field of student and school community development.
He was elected SGA President at Hampton; selected as Multicultural Educator of the Year by the Association of College Unions International; Faculty of the Year by the entire Greek system at UVA where was a Professor and Dean for many years. Dr. Conway served in leadership roles at Virginia Union University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Cornell University and the University of Michigan.
The other Dr. Conway, Dr. Ayana Conway, is an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice. They have three children. Two are VSU students.
Dr. Curtis R. Holsopple
Dr. Curtis R. Holsopple has taught mass media courses since 1967. He joined the VSU Mass Communications faculty in 2005, and he taught previously at Hampton University, Christopher Newport University, Eastern Mennonite University and Goshen College. Dr. Holsopple also served as an on-site trainer at various media companies around the Midwest and New England. He has worked in different types of media, including radio, television, magazine publishing, book writing, and consulting for the Federal Communications Commission. Holsopple also did public relations for two space shuttle flights. He holds top-rank licenses in broadcast engineering and electronic communications.
At Virginia State University, Dr. Holsopple teaches a broad spectrum of Mass Communications classes, including MCOM-201 Introduction to Mass Communications, MCOM-212 Photojournalism, MCOM-306 Broadcast Journalism, MCOM-309 Audio Production, MCOM-310 Advanced Audio Production, MCOM-330 Writing for Radio and Television, MCOM-338 History of Radio TV and Film, MCOM-400 Media Law, MCOM-499 Senior Seminar, and he has supervised internships. His skills include audio and video production, page layout, photography and videography, voice-over work, and multi-media production. He is a licensed amateur radio operator with broad skills in electronic communications.
Dr. Holsopple has written books, book chapters and numerous magazine articles on electronic communication and mass media. In recent years, Holsopple’s media-related research has focused on electronic messaging and its joint impact on the mass media industry and audiences.
Mrs. Bridgett Robertson
Bridgett Robertson, Mass Communications Internship Coordinator/Professor in the Mass Communications Department brings a varied media background to Virginia State University, which involves providing extensive creativity in developing promotional initiatives for students and gaining community partner support for departmental initiatives. She has fifteen years of experience in Radio/Television as a News Director, News Anchor and News Reporter. Bridgett was the Executive Producer/Founder of Cityscope, a news magazine that aired weekly on MediaOne and Comcast Cable/CNN Headline Newschannel reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Bridgett also has twelve years of experience working in higher education as a faculty member and administrator for three major colleges. Assignments included numerous positions working in a diverse environment within a university setting and pioneering educational initiatives. Bridgett’s instructional leadership experience involves student leadership development and advising.
From 2003-2008 Bridgett taught mass communications introductory courses, Electronic Media Writing I and Ethical Problems/Law in Mass Media in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University and held key administrative roles at the university. As an instructor at the College of William and Mary, Bridgett taught time management courses as well as study skill workshops.
Bridgett has several years of experience working with SACS on accreditation issues, applications and expertise in curriculum development. At Virginia State University, Bridgett teaches introductory mass communications courses and serves as the Mass Communications Internship Coordinator connecting community media leaders with students.
Most of Bridgett’s research is motivated by existing thereoretical perspectives and scholarship as it pertains to education, race and cultural perspectives to improve student learning. Recently proposed doctorate research includes understanding the relationship between multimedia journalism and culture. Bridgett graduated with a Master of Education from Virginia State University in 1991 and a Bachelor of Science majoring in Mass Communications from Norfolk State University in 1983.
Cheryl L. Black, Esq.
Cheryl L. Black is an attorney with the Intellectual Property Practice Group of Goodman Allen & Filetti, PLLC in their Richmond, VA office where she brings tremendous experience in Trademark Law following a stellar 15-year career with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Ms. Black has a unique and in-depth understanding of the critical process involved in accurately analyzing, preparing, filing and prosecuting domestic and foreign trademark applications and post registration documents.
Ms. Black provides intellectual property legal services to individuals, small to mid-size businesses, non-profit organizations, and authors. She counsels clients on establishing, protecting, maintaining, and defending copyright and trademark rights.
Ms. Black serves as Recording Secretary of the Greater Richmond Intellectual Property Law Association, Council Member of the Virginia Bar Association Intellectual Property and Information Technology Section, and Voting Member of the American Bar Association Special Committee on Trademark and the Internet. She is a freelance writer, an avid researcher, and a frequent lecturer on trademark and copyright issues.
She earned a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC, and a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications Management from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. She is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and before the Canadian Trademark Office.
She lives with her husband, Rick Black, and their three sons in Glen Allen, VA.
Dr. Cherlyn Johnson
Dr. Cherlyn A. Johnson is an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications at Virginia State University. She received her Ph.D. from Syracuse University (English Education), M.A. from the University of Akron (Communication) and B.A. from Dillard University (Mass Communications and English).
Her area of interest and research is educational television and multiculturalism in the media. She has authored Guests at an Ivory Tower: The Challenges Black Students Experience while Attending a Predominantly White University and has served as creative editor for Building the Well-Rounded Student: Using Technology to Build a Better Student. Dr. Johnson is also a reviewer for a national journal.
She is a former recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English Conference on English Education Cultural Diversity Grant and has been listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.
To keep abreast of the changes in education and the media, she is a member of Broadcast Education Association (BEA), National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), American Educational Research Association (AERA), National Academic Advisors Association (NACADA) and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Dr. Johnson teaches undergraduate courses in Introduction to Mass Communications, Journalism I, African Americans in the Media, History of Print and Technological Developments, and has supervised internships in Public Relations.
Dr. Duane Byrge
Duane Byrge has written for The Hollywood Reporter for more than 20 years. Starting out as a secretary for the entertainment industry newspaper while he was a graduate student at the University of Southern California, Byrge rose to serve in various capacities, including news editor and senior film critic.
He still writes for The Hollywood Reporter, reviewing at such film festivals as Sundance and Cannes, while filing articles throughout the year from Virginia. His reviews and articles are syndicated through Nielsen Communications and Reuters, where they appear worldwide.
Prior to joining The Hollywood Reporter, Byrge was the associate editor of the Writers Guild of America, West magazine Fade-In and, before coming to Virginia State University, was senior editor of ShowbizDATA.com.
He was the first national journalist outside of Utah to cover the Sundance Film Festival, beginning in 1983 before the festival was called “Sundance.” In 1985, he was the first and only national journalist to interview Robert Redford. He has interviewed Redford more than a dozen times at the festival.
An 18-year member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., Byrge has appeared as a critic and box-office analyst on numerous national news program, including: “E!,” “NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw” and Fox TV.
He has written for Aaron Spelling, writing such network programs as “Fantasy Island.” Byrge currently has a screenplay under option, “Deadline,” which he co-wrote with a former Hollywood Reporter colleague and recent Emmy winner Kirk Ellis (John Adams).
Byrge serves as a consultant to the Chicago International Film Festival, where he brought Halle Berry to Chicago in 2001 for a career tribute. For the festival, he also secured the participation of Clint Eastwood, Sigourney Weaver and Robin Williams, for whom he wrote/produced Lifetime Achievement Awards galas. He also wrote a Lifetime Tribute to Shirley MacLaine. In addition, Byrge has scouted films for the festival, at such events as the Berlin Film Festival.
In fall 2009, Byrge was a member of the Competition Jury for the 46th Annual Chicago International Film Festival, serving along with such luminaries as Jacqueline Bissett and the dean of Columbia College’s School of Film.
A Wisconsin native, Byrge holds a Ph.D. in Communications, with an emphasis in Cinema, from the University of Southern California where he has served as a lecturer. His Ph.D. dissertation was the basis for the book “The Screwball Comedy Films,” which he co-authored. The book was re-released in hardcover in 1991 by McFarland Publishing and re-released in paperback in 2001 as part of the publication’s Classic Series.
Byrge edited and compiled a series of star interviews for the American Film Institute, “Private Screenings,” which was published by Turner Publishing. Eighty creative stars – from Debbie Allen to Robert Zemeckis – participated in the book.
In addition, Byrge has been an adjunct faculty member at the American Film Institute, where he moderated the Directors on Directing course, interviewing more than 100 directors, including Clint Eastwood, Jodie Foster, John Singleton, James Cameron, Garry Marshall, Robert Zemeckis, among them.
In 1995, he received Billboard Publications’ Donaldson Award for his coverage of the Academy Awards.
He has had articles appear in a number of publications: San Francisco magazine, the San Francisco Examiner, Arthur Andersen Reports, “The Dictionary of Literary Biography: Screenwriters,” among them.
He is currently working on a book on movie producers, “Before the Shooting Begins,” which will be published by the University of California, Berkeley Press.
In 2002, Byrge programmed the speakers’ series for the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival, interviewing such celebrities as Tim Robbins and securing the participation of Francis Ford Coppola, among numerous stars and studio chieftains.
He has served on the board of governors of the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville. At the Virginia Film Festival, he has participated on panels and done on-stage interviews with John Grisham, Sigourney Weaver, Arthur Penn, among others.
He secured fund-raising screenings of Woody Allen’s Celebrity and You’ve Got Mail for the creation of the Wisconsin Film Festival.
In addition, he has served on the jury of films festivals: Montreux, Tokyo and Chicago.
Locally, he has served as moderator/interviews for the James River Writers festival.
Currently an assistant professor of Mass Communications at Virginia State University, Byrge teaches journalism, motion picture history and appreciation, and mass communications.
Dr. Carlton Edwards
Dr. Carol Wilcox
Dr. Carol Wilcox earned a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003. She was one of 12 Park Fellows in her UNC class. Her dissertation is about the Spanish-language press at the end of the nineteenth century. Much of it required her to translate from the Spanish.
She holds a Master’s in journalism with a minor in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas in Austin in 1999. Her Master’s thesis is about parachute journalism in Latin America. She has taught journalism at UT and at UNC and Spanish at a Colorado college. Wilcox has lived in six countries—Austria, Switzerland, France, Mexico and Canada, besides five states in the United States.
In 1993 and 1995, Wilcox won two fellowships for journalists to Mexico. The first was sponsored by the National Press Foundation, and the second, by the Institute of International Education in New York and the Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C.
Before returning to academia, Wilcox worked as a reporter and assistant editor at The Denver Post. She and her late husband, Cary Stiff, later founded a newspaper, The ClearCreek Courant, in Colorado, where she was a co-editor and co-publisher for several years. In the beginning, Stiff and Wilcox did all the reporting, photography, editing and newspaper deliveries for The Courant. She has worked at eight newspapers in the United States and abroad.
In 2010, the book, Knights of the Quill is scheduled for publication by the Purdue University Press. Wilcox is one of the authors. Her portion of the book is entitled, “William G. Shepardson: Swashbuckling Journalist on the Chesapeake.” The chapter is about a Virginia-based journalist who wrote for several newspapers in the South during the Civil War.
Wilcox came to VSU to teach in 2004. She teaches courses relating to print and on-line journalism. She also is the adviser for The Virginia Statesman, the campus newspaper that comes out twice a month during the regular school year.
