Matthew Cummings and Karen Freberg recognized as the 2012 Alexia Vanides IMC Teaching Award Winners

For the past several years, the P.I. Reed School of Journalism’s IMC program has asked students to vote and nominate the instructor who has most positively impacted their educational experience. This year, students nominated two IMC professors – Matthew Cummings, M.S. IMC and Karen Freberg, Ph.D. – for the Alexia Vanides IMC Teaching Award. Both faculty members were recognized at the INTEGRATE 2012 keynote dinner.

Cummings resides in Erie, PA, and teaches IMC 610 – Introduction to IMC. He is the vice president of integrated marketing communications for Core Creative, a full service agency serving manufacturing, retail, education and nonprofit clients in western Pennsylvania. He is the chief marketing communications strategist for the agency and specializes in national public relations, strategic media relations and social media.

Freberg is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville in Louisville, KY. She teaches IMC 618 – PR Concepts and Strategy – for the WVU IMC program. Along with her teaching experience, she has presented at many U.S. and international research conferences, including conferences in the Netherlands, Greece, Italy and China.

Formerly called the Golden Quill Teaching Award, the first IMC Teaching Award went to Alexia Vanides – for serving as an effective and inspiring educator, adviser and mentor in the IMC program’s online environment. Alexia passed away in early 2011, and in honor of her tremendous service and inspiration to so many students, the program has dedicated the teaching award to her memory.