COLUMBIA, SC, December 24, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Dr. Lowndes Frederick Stephens, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Stephens celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Stephens is a distinguished professor emeritus in the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina-Columbia (hereafter, identified as UofSC) since 2011. Joining the faculty in 1976, he was recruited to teach in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, earned tenure in 1979 and was promoted to full professor in 1986. He was later appointed as the associate dean for graduate studies and research (1992-1995), leading the school's successful efforts to establish a Ph.D. program, as acting director of the Center for Mass Communications Research (1999-2001), and as the J. Rion McKissick professor of journalism from 2000 to 2006. Dr. Stephens formerly garnered experience at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks as an assistant professor and the director of the Communications Research Center from 1974 to 1976.
Among his many teaching and research interests, Dr. Stephens has been involved with communication theory, mass media and the consumer, political communication and military and the media. He also designed two doctoral seminars at UofSC titled "Seminar in Ethical Reasoning in Mass Communications" and "Seminar in Advanced Communication Research Design" as well as a course titled "Media Economics." At various times in his career, he taught in UofSC's renown "First-Year Student Experience (University 101)" program, served on and led undergraduate and Master student thesis committees and doctoral dissertations, and mentored recipients of UofSC's most prestigious scholarships (i.e., McNair and Carolina scholars). He served as faculty advisor to the Chi Circle of ODK (Omicron Delta Kappa) for over two decades. Additionally, Dr. Stephens served on several campus committees, including as chair of the university's committees on tenure and promotion, faculty grievance, and its tenure review board, and as a member of the university's athletic advisory, general education, and financial aid/scholarship committees.
His scholarship has been sponsored/funded by many different outlets including the Rockefeller, Spencer, Gannett and National Science foundations, the American Newspaper Publishers Association, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Analyses Institute. He served as a faculty consultant to the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College (CGSC) for 17 years and has served as a research consultant for a variety of organizations, including The Washington Post, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Stars and Stripes, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, WIS-TV (Columbia, SC) and The State (newspaper, Columbia, SC), South Carolina Educational Television, South Carolina Department of Mental Health and the South Carolina Bar Association.
His op-ed pieces have appeared in several media outlets, including The New York Times; his academic writing in more than 20 different peer-reviewed journals including Journalism & Mass Communications Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Public Relations Review, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, Military Review, Armed Forces & Society and Science Communication.
Dr. Stephens, who enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1968, advancing to the rank of lieutenant colonel over his 27-year career, is a fellow in the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. For 15 years he taught in and occasionally directed the journalism school's advanced Army Public Affairs graduate program which he helped bring to the UofSC in 1981. At various times during his service as a "citizen soldier," he directed officer courses at an Army Reserve school, taught at the Defense Information School, lectured at the CGSC and The Citadel, led faculty-development workshops at the Virginia Military Institute, and "judged" entries to the Army's annual Keith L. Ware Communications Awards competition.
His other service contributions during his career include serving on the editorial advisory board of the World Press Encyclopedia, the national advisory board of the American Veterans Committee, the national advisory panel for the George Polk Awards in Broadcasting, head of the International Communication Division and the Mass Media and Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC), membership on AEJMC's Standing Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility, and president on two occasions of the Southern Association for Public Opinion Research. His community service over the years has included teaching Sunday School, congregant evaluation research for his Methodist Church, market segmentation analysis for the YMCA, and numerous public speaking engagements at civic clubs and symposiums.
To prepare for his career, Dr. Stephens earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics with a minor in journalism in 1967 and a Master of Arts in communications in 1969 with a minor in economics at the University of Kentucky. He later obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in mass communications research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1975. Dr. Stephens has completed numerous seminars, webinars and other continuing education courses to support his professional career as well.
As a graduate student in the Center for Developmental Change at Kentucky, he was responsible for evaluating the economic impact of a community action program in Knox County, part of a three-year project funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. His first, full-time job after college was as a technical writer/editor for the Kentucky Program Development Office (in the state's planning agency) where he edited an economic development news magazine and technical assistance directory for multicounty planning districts. As a research economist at Spindletop Research (1969-1972) in Lexington (KY), he worked on survey research and economic forecasting projects for various public (e.g., COMSAT) and private sector clients (e.g., Time, Inc.). In the spring/summer 1972, before embarking on doctoral studies at Wisconsin, Stephens worked for the Kentucky Educational Television Foundation, researching and designing social studies content for the first-ever televised program aimed at helping residents of Appalachian counties without a high school diploma, pass the GED exam.
Dr. Stephens is a Kentucky Colonel of the Commonwealth of Kentucky (i.e., The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels) and elected member of Omicron Delta Kappa (leadership honorary), Omicron Delta Epsilon (economics honorary) and Kappa Tau Alpha (journalism honorary). Recognized as an Outstanding Faculty Leader by Omicron Delta Kappa in 1988, he also received a Mortar Board Teaching Excellence Award at UofSC in its inaugural year for 1988-1989. Several years later, Dr. Stephens was honored with the Christa's Teaching Award by the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence at Framingham State College in 1996. Chosen by NASA as the first teacher in space, Christa Corrigan McAuliffe died in the Challenger shuttle crash January 28, 1986.
Stephens was born and raised in Frankfort (KY). He and his wife, Sally, were married in Nashville (TN) in June 1968 soon after she graduated from Vanderbilt Nursing School. They have two children and four grandchildren.
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