Charlyne Berens taught reporting, editing and a seminar on freedom of expression. She joined the college in 1990 and later served as news-editorial department chair and then associate dean. She retired in 2014 and has been very involved with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute -- OLLI at UNL -- as well as the League of Women Voters and Civic Nebraska. She continues to do occasional writing and editing for various publications.

Berens is the author of two political biographies -- one about Nebraska State Senator Jerome Warner and the other about Nebraska's U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel -- and two books about the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature: "Power to the People" and "One House: the Unicameral's Progressive Vision for Nebraska." 

Berens and her husband published the Seward County Independent, a community newspaper, from 1976-1990. She served as president of the Nebraska Press Association in 1988-89 and was later named to the Nebraska Newspaper Hall of Fame. 

Berens holds a bachelor of science in education degree from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, and a master's and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.