Colleen Callahan, Chair
Colleen Callahan, department chair, has taught photography, news writing, editing, news reporting, mass media and society, history of mass communications, and newsletter journalism since 1986. She administers the annual campus-wide photography contest and exhibition, and coordinates the department's internship program. Through a grant, she taught photography at the Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning in St. Paul in 1999. She's currently working on a photo documentary of Wisconsin dairy farming. Colleen received a master's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1986. Previously she was a reporter/photographer for community newspapers in southeastern Iowa where she won several state awards for her writing and photography.
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Pat Berg
Patricia Berg, teaches media writing, news reporting, international communication, and public opinion courses. Prior to joining the faculty in 1998, Pat taught in the department for several years as an adjunct. From the University of Minnesota she received a master's degree in mass communications in 1995, and a Ph.D. in mass communications in 1998. She has been invited to present her doctoral findings to a conference of the Swedish affiliation of Investigative Reporters and Editors in Vaxsjo, Sweden in March 2000. Pat presented her research findings on "Farming as News" to the National Newspaper Association's annual convention. Her radio documentary on dairy farming was broadcast over the Wisconsin Public Radio network in August 1999. She has written a chapter on interviewing for Journalism 2001, a popular journalism text. Previously, Pat was a Wisconsin correspondent for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and an occasional commentator for Minnesota Public Radio.
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Sandy Ellis
Sandy has been teaching journalism and broadcasting courses since 1980. She joined the UWRF faculty in 1997 and teaches broadcast journalism, radio and television production, and computer-assisted-reporting. She oversees the news department for WRFW and is responsible for the news aired over the University's television cable channel.
She worked as a radio news director and as a reporter/photographer for a newspaper and for television stations in Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina.
She has a B.S. from East Tennessee State University and a Ph. D. from the University of Tennessee. Her research interests focus on radio and TV news management and media history. She is an avid collector of old communication equipment including radios, TVs and telephones.
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Tracy O'Connell
Tracy O'Connell joins the faculty after a career managing public relations, advertising and marketing that spanned three decades. A UW-RF alumna (1974), she credits her alma mater with providing the rounding she needed for a career that started in print journalism and later encompassed the fields of politics, aerospace, education, and the utility industry.
O'Connell studied business, including market research and organizational communication, for a master's degree at UW-Stout, and higher education for a doctoral degree from UCLA, where her dissertation studied the image of a college in the changing culture of a multi-ethnnic communicty.
While her initial goal was to be an investigative news reporter, O'Connell crossed over to the public relations side early on. After a couple years editing the Augusta (Wisconsin) Area Times, she managed public relations and marketing for what is today Chippewa Valley Technical Institute. A move to the Los Angeles area in 1985 saw her continuing her marketing of education at the Ventura Community College District and Long Beach City College, where she also taught public relations and wrote a textbook used for more than a decade.
Moving to the for-profit arena in 1996, she managed customer communications at Southern California Edison during a period that encompassed the meltdown of the deregulation of the electric industry. Responsibilities included managing a multi-million dollar annual budget, advertising in five languages, overseeing the production of bill inserts and other collateral material, supervising the corporate web site, and other projects carried on by a staff of six.
A member of the Advertising Federation of Minnesota, the Twin Cities chapter of the Association for Women in Communications, and the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication, O'Connell teaches introductory and advanced advertising and public relations, and mass media writing for students in the Marketing Communications unit. A lifelong interest in other cultures, combined with the wish to provide new opportunities to her students, led O'Connell to participate in a Summer, 2005 trip to Tibet with other members of the university family, to explore opportunities for students to work on innovative marketing projects.
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Andris Straumanis, Faculty
Newly hired Fall 2005, Straumanis teaches classes in print and online journalism and advises the campus newspaper, the Student Voice.
Andris Straumanis brings a wealth of practical and academic experience to UW-RF. His professional experience includes more than a dozen years as a reporter, editor, photographer and graphic designer for weekly and business newspapers in Illinois and Minnesota. From 1998-2005 Straumanis was a lecturer in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
He continues to work as a freelance writer and Web communicator. Among other activities is editing Latvians Online, an English-language Web site offering news, features, reviews, opinion and other material of interest to Latvians living abroad.
Besides teaching and professional activities, Straumanis is a doctoral candidate in mass communication in the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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Brenda Bredahl
Brenda K. Bredahl joined the Public Affairs Office in 2004 as a part-time communications specialist. Part of her duties include coordinating the Public Affairs Internship Program. She has a long association with UW-RF; in addition to being an alumna, she has taught occasionally in the UW-RF journalism department since 2000. She was a freelance writer/researcher for UW-RF's 125th anniversary publication, which received a CASE award. While an undergraduate, she was an associate editor in the UW-RF publications office from 1985 to 1990.
A former freelance copy editor of International Wolf and Wisconsin West magazines, Bredahl's freelance articles and photos have appeared in Corporate Report Wisconsin, Grit, Historic Traveler, Milwaukee magazine, Minnesota Monthly, Wisconsin Trails, Where Twin Cities and others.
Former staff positions include associate editor at Minnesota Medicine magazine, PR rep at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College-New Richmond, publications manager for the Minnesota Historical Society and associate editor at the U of M Academic Health Center. In 1996 and 1997 she received the Minnesota Government Communicator's Northern Lights Award of Excellence for annual report writing.
Bredahl has a graphics certificate from 916 Vo-Tech Institute (now Century College), a B.S. with a double major in journalism and art from UW-RF, and a M.S. in mass communication from the U of M. She is married to Tony, an art director in the UW-RF publications office. They have one son.
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Richard McNamara
Rick began instructing the "Intro to Mass Media" class (Journalism 101) in the mid 1970s and presently teaches it each semester while "on loan" from his regular position in the English department. He has a bachelors degree in philosophy from Bethel College and earned a master's degree at the University of Iowa in American Studies.
McNamara joined the university staff in 1970 and has also freelanced for newspapers in Wisconsin and Iowa. He was employed in the sports department of the Republican Eagle newspaper in Red Wing, Minnesota, where he served as a reporter and a columnist for more than twenty years.
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Mike Norman
Michael Norman retired from the journalism department in May, 2003. A faculty member since 1973, Michael was an associate professor of journalism and chair of the 2000 ACEJMC Accreditation Self-Study Committee. He also sat on the steering committee for the interdisciplinary Marketing Communications Major, for which he was one of the founders.
He was chair of the department from 1981-1999 and advised WRFW-FM from 1973 - 1981. He is also the co-author of five collections of American ghost stories including: Haunted Wisconsin, Haunted Heartland, Haunted America, Historic Haunted America and Haunted Homeland. His most recent book contains over 100 stories from the United States and Canada, including a section on college campus ghosts (one of his college stories is aobut UW-RF theatre professor Jim Zimmerman's strange encounter with what may have been a ghost in Davis Theatre. He is developing some television projects based on his books. Mike has a Master's Degree from Northern Illinois University.
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Rick Burgsteiner, WRFW-FM General Manager
Rick is the advisor/general manager for the campus radio station, WRFW-FM. Rick holds degrees in Broadcasting Technology and Radio/TV. Prior to joining the academic staff at UW-RF, he managed an audio lab at Penn State University. He has taught a wide variety of broadcasting related courses for more than 13 years.
On the side, Rick works as an actor and a musician.
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Joan Kratt, Academic Department Associate
Dividing her schedule between the journalism and political science departments, Joan began work as the program assistant in January 1999. She graduated with a degree in English and mathematics from St. Olaf/Mankato State University. After taking graduate classes at UW-RF, Joan was Pierce County Fair Administrator for 12 years and served as clerk for the Town of Gilman for 6 years. She enjoys traveling, painting, reading, quilting and especially family reunions.
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Al Murray, Director of Engineering WRFW
Al began the campus radio station WRFW, while a student at UW-RF in the mid 1960s. He has served as the director of engineering for WRFW since his return from the United States Navy in 1971. The majority of his time is spent in designing telecommunications systems for the entire university including a massive fiber optic system encompassing all the university buildings.
Al serves as a member of university committees on distance education and information technology. He devotes his free time to the Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS), receiving and transmitting messages for military personnel and family members worldwide.
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