Alan Hantz
Dr. Hantz, chair of the Department of Mass Communication, teaches media aesthetics, media law, and photojournalism. Dr. Hantz has taken students to Greece and Italy to study digital imaging and humanities. On campus, he is active in UNCA's Integrative Liberal Studies Program. Professor Hantz has served as a political research consultant, and has researched media in politics. He has published a communication textbook and a communication handbook for municipal government officials. He has produced several documentary video and photography projects. His current scholarly interests have focused on ethics of digital image manipulation, and media convergence. He holds degrees from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Illinois State University, and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Mark West
Dr. West teaches newswriting, mass communication theory, politics, and survey research courses. Dr. West has worked as a media researcher for major corporations. His research on public opinion and media coverage of war garnered the prestigious ICA Kyoon Hur Dissertation Award and the AEJMC Nafziger-White Dissertation Award, both in 1992. He holds degrees in classics, literature, radio, motion pictures, and television, and mass communication research from UNCA and UNC at Chapel Hill, and has recently edited Theory, Method, and Practice in Computer Content Analysis and Applications of Computer Content Analysis with Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers on computer analysis of textual material. He is the author or co-author of three other books in journalism, and the humanities.
Don Diefenbach
Dr. Diefenbach is associate professor of mass communication at UNCA. He teaches video production, media effects, and film studies courses. Diefenbach's research focuses on media violence, media portrayals of mental health issues, and television content analysis. Don is a member of the Asheville Film Festival advisory committee and chair of educational programming for the festival. Diefenbach's video production credits include educational, corporate and nationally broadcast programming. He is author of "Video Production Techniques: Theory and Practice from Concept to Screen," published by Routledge. Diefenbach has degrees in film, philosophy and mass communication from Pesnnsylvania State University and the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
Patricia Baldwin
Pat Baldwin joined the University of North Carolina at Asheville as an Assistant Professor in Mass Communication in August 2007. During the previous decade, she served as Editor in Chief of Private Clubs, an award-winning, 21-year-old, bimonthly lifestyle magazine published by Dallas, Texas-based ClubCorp. She served as Editor in Chief of Golf for Women magazine in Lake Mary, Florida, from May 1994 - August 1997. She previously had been a business writer and columnist at The Dallas Morning News from 1989-1994 and at The Dallas Times Herald from 1987-1989. She also has 10 years experience with business journals in Houston and Austin, where she was a co-owner of Austin Business Journal from 1983-1985. Prior to joining UNCA and since 1987, she had served as an adjunct at five universities, teaching a variety of journalism courses.
Michael Gouge
Michael E. Gouge teaches newswriting, layout & design, public affairs reporting, media ethics, advertising and public relations. He is also the faculty advisor for UNCA's student newspaper The Blue Banner. Mr. Gouge has 20 years of newspaper experience as the news editor for the Hendersonville (N.C.) Times-News and a copy editor for the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. He is an alumnus of UNCA's mass communication department and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Alabama
Anne Slatton
Anne Slatton teaches video and film production, film genres, and film criticism and directing. In addition to contributing a chapter on Lorraine Hansberry to the Student's Encyclopedia of Great American Authors, she has created original dramatic and educational materials for schools and community theaters across the United States. Her play, Pres de Lune, has been produced in Memphis and Los Angeles and garnered three and four star reviews in the internationally renowned Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her production work in film and television has included directing, writing and producing. Documentary work includes PBS documentary Crisis in the Keys, National Geographic 12 part series Treasure Seekers, and The Learning Channel's Treasure! In the spring of 2001, Thyme in Forever, an original screenplay, won a Gold at WorldFest Houston. Feelin' Good, a thirty-minute video, which Anne wrote and directed was awarded a coveted 2002 Parent's Choice Award. She currently heads up UNCA's 48 hour film festival team.
Michael Flynn
Michael Flynn teaches newswriting at UNC Asheville. He is a correspondent at the Asheville Citizen-Times, where he has been a business, health and features reporter. Prior to joining the the Citizen-Times in 2003, Flynn practiced corporate law in New York and Charlotte, N.C., for more than a decade, with a focus on media and telecom financings. Flynn holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University, J.D. from Duke University and M.A. in mass communication from UNC Chapel Hill.
Hal Marienthal
Hal Marienthal teaches Screenwriting and Advanced Screenwriting. Hal has twenty-five years experience in the movie and television industries, has taught extensively at the university level, and is an active member of the screenwriters guild.
Michael Luther
Michael Luther teaches video production design and video production elements. Michael also teaches digital media production in Asheville City Schools, and produces and directs content for Asheville Educational Television. He has done freelance production work since 1997, serving as a videographer, producer/director, and archivist for educational access, local origination, and broadcast television, involving live-to-tape, industrial, and documentary work. Clients have included Time-Warner Cable, NBC News Channel, the Adult Basic Skills Professional Development Project at Appalachian State University, Prep Sports Online, and independent producers. Research interests include mass media impact on perception and identity, and educational uses of media. Michael holds a degree in Communications/Broadcast Production and a Masters degree in Educational Media production from Appalachian State University. .
Stephanie O'Brien
Stephanie O'Brien received her BA in Communication Studies with a concentration in Broadcasting/Cinema from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She received an MA in Communication Studies with a concentration in Film and Television Theory and Criticism from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and began career in local TV news production before moving into film and television production. After several years as a production assistant, she was admitted into the Director's Guild of America as an Assistant Director. She has worked as an Assistant Director on over 35 features, TV series and commercials.