Brian J. Steffen, Ph.D. (1989)
Professor of Communication Studies; Chair of the Department of Communication Studies.
B.A., Iowa State University, 1981
M.S., Iowa State University, 1987
Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1995
Office: McNeill 24
(515) 961-1650
Brian Steffen has been a fixture in Simpson’s communication studies program since 1989. He now chairs the program and teaches the department's coursework in journalism and mass communication.
Steffen also brings a wealth of professional experience to his work with Simpson students: Before coming to academe, he worked as a reporter and editor with Iowa weeklies, the Ames Daily Tribune and the Associated Press. He started his teaching career as an adjunct instructor of journalism at Iowa State University.
The winner of Simpson’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2002, Steffen has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State and a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Iowa. He is a frequent speaker and panelist at journalism-education conventions around the nation, and his research has been published in Journalism Quarterly, the Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Communications and the Law and the John Marshall Law Review.
A leader among small-college journalism faculty in the United States, Steffen is a past president of the Iowa College Media Association, former chair of the ethics committee of College Media Advisers and former leader of the Small Programs Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
View Dr. Steffen's Vita