Photojournalism Faculty & Staff

Connie Cleveland has been an adjunct instructor at MSUM since 1996, lecturing on a variety...

Connie Cleveland has been an adjunct instructor at MSUM since 1996, lecturing on a variety on Legal topics and subjects related to law. Connie has been a practicing attorney in North Dakota since 1989.

Merrie Sue Holtan teaches communication studies courses in interviewing, composition, inte...

Merrie Sue Holtan teaches communication studies courses in interviewing, composition, intercultural communication, journalism, sports communication, event planning, media writing, public speaking, public relations and business and professional communication. She has an undergraduate commnication degree from the University of Minnesota, a masters in communication from NDSU and an MFA in Creative writing from MSUM. She is the author of three books, including "Power and Stride, The Nancy Burggraf Story," which she also produced as a documentary. Also a contract writer with more than 400 published articles, Merrie Sue has won state and national writing awards. She has written several community and non profit grants totaling nearly one million dollars and has also trained five national champion baton twirlers.

Aaron Quanbeck is an Associate Professor specializing in Broadcast Journalism. He is the P...

Aaron Quanbeck is an Associate Professor specializing in Broadcast Journalism. He is the Program Director for MSUM's Campus News program broadcast on Prairie Public Television stations throughout North Dakota, eastern Minnesota and southern Manitoba. Over the years Campus News and the students involved with the program have won numerous awards from professional organizations. Quanbeck started his broadcasting career as a reporter/photographer at WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks, ND. He was part of the news team that won an Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of the flood of 1997 in Grand Forks. Later that year, he became the news director for Studio One at the University of North Dakota. He also produced and directed many special programs at the Television Center at UND. He earned an Eric Sevareid Award for his 2006 documentary work titled "UND Clay: the Cable Years.” He earned his Ph.D. at North Dakota State University in 2011. He presented a paper about a speech by Edward R. Murrow at the 2014 Broadcast Education Association’s annual conference. It was awarded the top debut paper in the historical division.

From a gallery bio about me: Chris Walker grew up on a small farm outside rural Croswel...

From a gallery bio about me: Chris Walker grew up on a small farm outside rural Croswell, Michigan, where his parents instilled in him a near-reverent appreciation for the land and its natural inhabitants. Today we find in Chris a rare blend of artist and journalist with deep concerns for social anthropology and our ever-changing environment. Walker has photographed for clients ranging from The Associated Press and The New York Times to Scientific American, Inc. and Camping Life magazine, where he was the photography columnist for five years. Walker served five years as a general assignment photographer for The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, where he covered assignments ranging from hostage situations and food illustrations to professional sports and the epoch spring migration of sandhill cranes along Nebraska’s Platte River. As a photojournalist, he was part of a three-person team that earned a finalist spot for Investigative Reporting in the 2000 Pulitzers. In spring of 2018, Walker had five images in the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, in Seoul, South Korea; and the previous fall, along with Andrea Star Reese and Steve McCurry, juried preliminary segments of the Worldwide Photography Gala Awards for the 2018 exhibition in Prague. He had seven pieces in the 2016 Berlin Foto Biennale, and in 2015 placed two portfolios in the UK’s Pollux Awards – one as a runner up, one as a finalist. His website is on the New York Times’ “Most Provocative Websites” list, and in the past several years his work has been seen in texts such as Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age, and Artificial Lighting for Photography. He also edited, illustrated, and contributed copy to a chapter in Multimedia Foundations: Core Concepts for Digital Design. Recent magazine and journal publications have included six pages in VisCom Quarterly; 14 pages in Silvershotz, The International Journal of Fine Art Photography (Australia/UK); and 10 pages in Photo ART, Contemporary (Thailand). Chris currently lives in Fargo, North Dakota, and is an Assistant Professor – across the Red River – at Minnesota State University Moorhead.