T E A C H I NG
Brit’s teaching speciality lies in strategic communication. As such, her teaching experience includes courses that public relations students will need at the beginning and end of their academic career. This includes principles of public relations to build a foundation, and a public relations campaigns capstone course to complete their studies.
University of Florida Teaching Experience
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Served as teaching assistant in Spring 2024, and teach as instructor of record in Fall 2024 at the University of Florida.
In Principles of Public Relations, students learn about the theory and practice of public relations, how public relations operates in organizations, its impact on publics, and its functions in society. Students study the professional development of the field; concepts, issues, and principles in the practice; and models and theories guiding the practice. They apply course materials to public relations program planning and management by working in a group on a strategic planning project. For those planning public relations careers, this course provides a foundation for the public relations major. The course also meets the needs of those planning other professional and managerial careers that can benefit from an understanding of public relations concepts and management practices.
Virginia Tech Teaching Experience
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Served as teaching assistant from Fall 2019 to Spring 2021, but was the only instructor that students knew at Virginia Tech.
In this general education course, students present five speeches to their class: a narrative, a concept speech, an issue analysis, a progress report, and a persuasive speech. Students get experience working in groups and public speaking skills that serve them throughout their careers.
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Served as teaching assistant Fall 2021, served as instructor of record Summer 2022, Spring 2023, Summer 2023, and two sections in Summer 2024 at the University of Florida.
Public relations campaigns is the capstone course for the public relations undergraduate program at the College of Journalism and Communications. Therefore, it draws heavily on students’ previous training in principles, techniques, writing, and research methods to develop a public relations campaign for a real-world client.
Students use public relations principles and techniques to analyze case studies, track current public relations issues, create various communication campaigns, and present new opportunities to their client. The additional advanced learning comes not solely from the instructor and the course materials but in the application – the creation of a comprehensive public relations campaign.
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Served as teaching assistant Spring 2022, and instructor of record Fall 2022 at the University of Florida.
Social media has changed the way that organizations communicate with audiences and has provided creators a platform to reach millions of people. This project-based course explores social media from a public relations perspective. By the end of the course, students understand how strategic communication has evolved from social media’s inception. Students complete hands-on activities by publishing your own content and working with a group to create a social media campaign from the initial research to the evaluation phase, familiarizing themselves with the RPIE model.
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Served as instructor of record Winter 2020, Summer 2021, and Summer 2022 at Virginia Tech.
Virtual public speaking has a more professional focus, with students giving four speeches: an audio-only podcast, conducting interviews with other students, a progress report, and an issue analysis. This online course prepares students for a virtual work force.
Invited Guest Lecture
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Seminar in Research Methods
Guest lectured a seminar on content analysis to first-year doctoral and master’s students. Specifically, the talk surrounded how to go from theory to method and coding when conducting a content analysis.
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Social Media and Digital Cultures
I served as part of a panel for CMJ 540 at the University of Maine’s graduate course “Social Media and Digital Cultures.” I spoke about research methodology and how to access hard-to-reach populations on social media. Specifically, I spoke about how we obtained participants for our paper “An attack on free speech? Examining content moderation, (de-), and (re-) platforming on American right-wing alternative social media.”