This fall, one School of Journalism and Mass Communications (SJMC) alum and five graduate students will share their real-world expertise in our classrooms. As adjunct instructors and lecturers, they’ll give undergraduate students fresh perspectives from a variety of fields.
This semester, we invite you to get to know the new staff members joining the SJMC.
Adjunct Instructor
Tamia Fowlkes (BA’22)
Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covering stories about health care, housing, disability and politics. Her reporting seeks accountability for wrongdoing and sheds light on under-covered communities. Fowlkes earned her Master of Science in journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from UW–Madison.
She previously served as an intern for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‘s Investigative Watchdog Team as a part of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist “Wires and Fires”investigation.
Before joining Journal Sentinel, Fowlkes completed internships at the Washington Post, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” USA Today – Network and the Wisconsin State Journal. In 2026, she was awarded the Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists. She will be teaching J335: Principles and Practices of Journalism in the fall.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching at your alma mater and working with the next generation of journalists and communicators?
It is such an honor to be returning to the SJMC this fall as an instructor. My J–School experience was packed with opportunities to break news, cover historic events, interview prominent public figures and elected officials and connect with journalists who inspired me. I learned how to collaborate, developed a strong news sensibility, grew my passions for multimedia and investigative journalism and had the most wonderful professors as mentors. I hope to provide the same opportunities to students in my class.
What perspective do you hope to bring to the students you teach?
Not many years ago, I walked the same halls as current SJMC students, nervous about the future and trying to plot my dream career. Since then, I’ve taken on nearly a dozen journalism internships and fellowships, attended graduate school, moved to New York City and Washington, D.C. and returned to my native Milwaukee to cover stories ranging from politics to pop culture. It’s been an exciting journey that initially seemed incredibly daunting. Having navigated all of these changes over the past eight years, I look forward to assisting students as they navigate early-career transitions and getting them excited for what is to come post-graduation.
Lecturers
Eric Boansi Agyekum
Eric Boansi Agyekum is a PhD student at the SJMC. His research explores journalism practice, digital media and counter-misinformation interventions, with a focus on their political, social and epistemic consequences. He is specifically interested in how the media constitute knowledge and negotiate the tension between indigenous knowledge systems and Western knowledge practices. He will be teaching J335: Principles and Practices of Reporting in the fall.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching at your current graduate school and working with the next generation of journalists and communicators?
The most gratifying part of my job as a journalism instructor is seeing a published news story that has my student’s name as the byline. I feel proud and fulfilled.
What perspective do you hope to bring to the students you teach?
Beyond teaching students how to write compelling news stories, I want them to appreciate journalism practice from the perspectives of countries with political, social and economic structures distinct from that of the US.
Hyerin Kwon
Hyerin Kwon is a PhD candidate in the SJMC with a doctoral minor in Computer Science. Her research lies at the intersection of strategic and political communication and computational social science. She will be teaching J564: Media and the Consumer in the fall.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching at your current graduate school and working with the next generation of journalists and communicators?
What I find most rewarding is seeing students apply communication concepts and principles to experiences they are likely to encounter as they graduate and enter the professional world.
What perspective do you hope to bring to the students you teach?
Through this course, I hope to bring an analytical perspective on advertising and its role in consumer culture, encouraging students to think critically about its impact on society.
Ryan Wettschurack
Ryan Wettschurack is a PhD student in the SJMC. He is interested in media history, journalism studies and archival analysis. He holds a Master of Arts from UW-Madison and a Bachelor of Arts from Purdue University. He will be teaching J150: Introduction to Sports Communication in the fall.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching at your current graduate school and working with the next generation of journalists and communicators?
What I find most rewarding is seeing students’ eyes light up when they understand the concept or method I am teaching, and then seeing that understanding come through in their work.
What perspective do you hope to bring to the students you teach?
I hope to demonstrate to my students that human intelligence and ingenuity is the best and most enjoyable way to understand the world around us.
Gaofei Li
Gaofei Li is a PhD candidate at the SJMC. Her research is centered on the pivotal role of multimodal media in shaping public opinion, with a specific focus on the context of intergroup relations and health communication. She employs a unique blend of traditional qualitative methods and computational techniques to uncover insights of media driving societal change. She will be teaching J677: Concepts and Tools for Data Analysis and Visualization in the fall.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching at your current graduate school and working with the next generation of journalists and communicators?
Seeing students grow throughout the semester and become more confident, curious, and thoughtful communicators while preparing themselves to become professional journalists, marketers, and media professionals.
What perspective do you hope to bring to the students you teach?
I hope to bring a diverse perspective that encourages students to consider different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints in their work.
Yoo Ji Suh
Yoo Ji Suh is a PhD candidate at the SJMC with minors in Political Science and Psychology. Her research comprises two connected strands: how media and moral psychology jointly shape attitudes and behaviors across media and settings, from news and social media to online and offline contexts; and how those insights can inform persuasive interventions that promote pro-social attitudes and behaviors. She draws on lab, survey and digital field experiments, along with computational methods. Her recent work includes AI opinion simulation, which uses silicon samples of AI personas to predict public opinion dynamics. She will be teaching J677: Concepts & Tools for Data Analysis and Visualization in the fall.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching at your current graduate school and working with the next generation of journalists and communicators?
I am really looking forward to guiding students through their first experiences with data and building their confidence to carry those skills into whatever field they pursue.
What perspective do you hope to bring to the students you teach?
I want students to come away understanding that data should be handled responsibly, but not fearfully. My aim is to lower the barrier to exploring data—a barrier that is largely psychological—while encouraging them to be thoughtful in how they analyze, interpret, and present it.