About Nancy Edmonds Hanson, APR

Nancy Edmonds Hanson brings more than lecture notes and her precious AP Stylebook to the media writing and public relations classes she's taught to mass communications majors for the past ten years. Since graduating from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1971, she has explored virtually every corner of the communications industry in the Upper Midwest — as a newspaper and magazine writer, editor and columnist (staff and freelance), author, publisher, television producer, advertising executive, and marketing and public relations consultant.

She and her husband operate Hanson Photo.Video.Communications, specializing in commercial photography and video production, as well as public relations. She is accredited in public relations by the Public Relations Society of America.

They also operate The LOOK by Hanson Photo.Video, a full-service studio offering family, individual, senior and pet portraiture as well as photojournalistic wedding coverage.. She specializes in digital image artistry with PhotoShop and other specialized programs.

Mrs. Hanson works with business and public-spirited clients as an independent public relations consultant, editor and writer. Among current and recent clients are Mayville State University, the Jamestown Hospital Foundation, the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences,  North Dakota State College of Science, North Dakota Farmers Union, Fargo-Cass County Economic Development Corporation, Lutheran Social Services, Dakota Certified Development Corporation, Access Kiddie Rides Inc., The Stabo, Creative Kitchen, North Dakota Soybean Council, Upper Midwest Recovery (United Methodist Church), Fargo Catholic Schools Network Foundation, Lutheran Disaster Response, the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, and many others.

She's the author of How You Can Make $25,000 a Year Writing (No Matter Where You Live) — and has been practicing what she's preached since collecting her degree in mass communications in 1971. The book, like the previous 1980 edition ["... $20,000 a Year"] was chosen a selection of the Book of the Month, Quality Paperback, Fortune and Writers Digest Book Clubs. It ranks as one of Writers Digest Books' all-time best-selling how-to books on the writing business. She is also author of the five books of the North Dakota Centennial Series, published in collaboration with North Dakota Horizons Magazine; the books have sold nearly 50,000 copies.

Her resume includes nearly eight years with The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead as reporter, columnist and arts/entertainment editor, and three as assistant director of the North Dakota Tourism Department. She also worked for six years as creative director and writer for a Fargo advertising agency; edited the monthly magazine Howard Binford's Guide for five years, and spent seven seasons as producer of Prairie Public Television's weekly news program "North Dakota This Week." Her publishing company was for five years a principal source of Midwestern regional books for Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks and other booksellers.

MSUM's department of mass communications has presented Nancy with its "distinguished alumni" award. Honored in 1981 as one of MSUM's "outstanding young alumni," she has served on North Dakota's Business and Economic Development Commission and the Commission on the Status of Women. She was a member of the original national advisory council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's magazine, The Lutheran, and has served on the boards of directors of the North Dakota Heritage Foundation and the Fargo Theatre. She is a frequent speaker on marketing, publishing and public relations at state and regional conferences.

Nancy and her husband Russ have a 21-year-old daughter, Patti, and live in Moorhead with a dog, two cats and four birds.

Classes

MC210: Media Writing

MC307: Public Relations Processes

This page was last updated on 01/10/06 by Nancy E. Hanson (nehanson@aol.com)