Jeniece Smith

A cross-platform storyteller since 2005, Jeniece zigzagged among three Midwest states chasing a decade-long journalism career. She was fortuitous enough to spend six-plus years of that ten in her hometown newsroom at the Rockford Register Star in Illinois. From smaller dailies to a statewide paper, she held myriad roles devoted to local news, most of them focused on digital production. After a 2015 leap to communications, marketing and community relations as managing editor for Wisconsin’s Department of Tourism, Jeniece discovered professional purpose anew in higher education. She has worked in higher-ed "marcom" at a liberal arts college, a public research university and now as an administrator at Highland Community College. Like news, an education empowers people with information to help them learn — and thus make more meaningful life choices. Jeniece is grateful to be telling a version of this story, as her time in higher ed led her to complete a master's in communication studies at her alma mater, Northern Illinois University. As she approaches the third decade of her career next year, she hopes to persist in academia with further learning, and perhaps even teaching someday.