Amy Struthers
Advertising Sequence Head
Assistant Professor of Advertising
Contact:
337 Andersen Hall
402.472.3528
astruthers2@unl.edu
Bio
Amy Struthers, Assistant Professor, teaches promotional strategy, copywriting, and integrated marketing communication campaigns. She is the Archrival Faculty Fellow for Trend Research and is head of the Advertising Sequence. Struthers was selected as a scholar in the Advertising Educational Foundation's Visiting Professor Program in 2006, and was posted at McCann Erickson New York. She received the college's Outstanding Faculty Service Award in 2005.
Struthers' research agenda includes work in public health messaging, particularly to teen audiences. She is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers working on a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) called The World of Viruses. The five-year grant will fund development and testing of innovative materials about viruses such as HPV and HIV/AIDS, which will be disseminated through non-traditional channels such as public libraries.
A second grant for $1.8 million entitled, The Omaha Science Media Project, will test the hypothesis that high school students can learn science better by utilizing a journalistic approach. Virology will be the science focus of this project, and students as well as teachers in the Omaha Public School system will participate in summer workshops to learn media storytelling, using the latest in video and audio equipment.
Working with both undergraduate and graduate students, Struthers researches the social phenomenon of trends. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are helping to shed light on the dissemination of ideas and product, with particular audience segments, funded by the Archrival Faculty Fellowship for Trend Research.
Struthers' research interests also include international communication, which prompted development of a CoJMC Study Abroad program that is an innovative five-week class in Paris combining French language learning with media studies. Struthers was awarded a $20,000 Cooper Foundation grant to develop promotional campaigns for international activities in the college, which was doubled with a match from an anonymous donor. She is a member of the international honor society Phi Beta Delta, is bi-lingual in French and English, and has lived and worked in France.
Struthers works closely with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services on a collaborative project to develop and implement an effective campaign encouraging high school students to be more physically active and make better food choices. The campaign incorporates formative and summative assessment, and includes a strong research component, which is funded by a Layman Research Grant.
A grant from the Nebraska Energy Center funds Struthers' work with colleague Jerry Renaud to develop materials about renewable energy options for Nebraskans and a promotional campaign driving citizen participation in policy discussions.
Struthers serves as adviser to a vibrant student chapter of the American Advertising Federation, UNL Ad Club, and to the student team for the National Student Advertising Competition. She is the CoJMC representative to a number of campus committees, including the Visual Literacy Program of Excellence Steering Committee, the Online Degree Completion Task Force, and the UNL Libraries Committee and is one of the college's Commencement Marshals.
Prior to joining the CoJMC faculty, Struthers was a marketing professional for 15 years for IBM and for a variety of programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She was the first full time professional Advertising Manager of the Daily Nebraskan. Struthers graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UNL with bachelor's degrees in English, French and Comparative Literature and was a member of Mortar Board. She was a Newspaper Fund reporting intern at the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Struthers earned a master's in French Language and Literature following her teaching in the French public school system. She joined the College of Journalism and Mass Communications in January 2003.
Curriculum vitae available upon request.
