Dr. Lillie Fears

Professor of Multimedia Journalism

Multimedia Journalism Program Coordinator

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Education

• PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia
• MS, Arkansas State University
• BS, Arkansas State University
• AA, Phillips County Community College

Teaching Specialties

• Introduction to Mass Communications
• News Writing
• Race and Gender Portrayals
• Propaganda and Media

Research Interests

• Race and Gender Portrayals
• Propaganda and Public Opinion

Affiliations

• Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications
• Greater Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce
• Arkansas Early Learning (Head Start) Board
• Jonesboro Rotary
• Delta Cultural Center Policy Board

Curriculum Vitae

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Biography

Dr. Lillie Mae Fears is professor and chair of the Multimedia Journalism Program in the School of Media & Journalism at Arkansas State University, where her career has spanned three decades.

Dr. Fears also serves as Faculty liaison for Diversity in the university’s Office of Diversity and Community Engagement, a role that allows her to help mentor diverse tenure-track faculty.  In previous years, she served as Assistant for Diversity Initiatives in the Office of the Provost, where she facilitated the Quality Teaching Circle Learning Initiative, also designed to mentor and retain diverse tenure track faculty. Additionally, she conducted workshops on ways to recruit and hire diverse faculty, and she supervised Circle of Trust and Brother-to-Brother, the academic mentoring groups for African American women and men students, respectively. 

Her scholarly endeavors include publishing articles on a variety of topics such as the Black Press, the Ferguson Riot, and African American women’s portrayals. Scholars all over the world continue to download her article, The Meaning of ‘Angry Black Woman’ in Print News Coverage of First Lady Michelle Obama, several times each month. In addition, she has been invited to give talks about her research at conferences, colleges and universities.  In 2015, she was invited by the U. S. Department of State to conduct diversity workshops for journalists in Serbia.

An accomplished educator in higher education, she teaches a variety of courses that include media history, and public opinion and propaganda. Her career at A-State has allowed her to mentor students from all over the world, including Africa, The Middle East, Asia, Europe, and of course, the United States. Along the way, she has taken students on tours of the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta, and she has accompanied African American students to Minority Journalism Career Fairs in Columbia, Mo., Dallas, Jackson, MS, Little Rock and Memphis.  She also raised funds to host all-expense educational trips for students and the community to visit Civil War Battle Fields in her hometown of Helena, Arkansas.

Dr. Fears is a member of St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Jonesboro, where she has served in a variety of auxiliaries over the years. With a heart for underserved youth, she also has enjoyed helping to create and implement educational programs for this group in the communities in which she resides.  This passion is what inspired her to secure grants to host summer book clubs at community centers and churches for underserved children and youth who lacked transportation to visit the city’s public library.  She has volunteered in public schools throughout the Arkansas Delta, including as a lunch buddy and a reader in Jonesboro Public Schools.  A native of West Helena, Arkansas, she grew up participating in the 4-H Club Program in Phillips County, and was inspired in 1990 to organize the first diverse 4-H Club in Craighead County, serving Black, Latino and White youth in Walker Court Apartment, a Family low income housing apartment complex in Jonesboro.

Her civic work includes serving on the Workforce Development Committee of the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce, where she helps to present talks to 8^th and 10^th grade students in all Craighead County schools about the importance of finishing high school and pursuing certifications or college degrees beyond high school. She is also the former chair and a current director with the Arkansas Early Learning Board, the largest Head Start grantee in the state of Arkansas; a Governor’s appointee and former chair of the Delta Cultural Center Policy Board in Helena; and a club director on the Rotary Club of Jonesboro Board.