TSU Professor Receives TV Faculty Program Executives Fellowship

Melissa Richie

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Assistant professor of Mass Communications, Melissa Richie, has been chosen as a National Association of Television Program Executives Faculty Fellowship recipient for the January 2014 NATPE Marketplace and Conference.

The conference, which takes place Jan. 25-29 in Miami, provides selected college and university media faculty with complete access to sessions and activities of the annual NATPE Market and Conference, and exposes the educational community to current television issues and practices, and fosters improved communication and cooperation between educators and the industry.

“I am honored to be able to attend this conference and meet one-on-one with television executives and members of the industry,” said Richie. “This is something that energizes you, and keeps you up-to-date on what is going on in the industry. I look forward to being able to bring back a tremendous amount of useful information that I can share with our faculty and staff on any emerging trends.”

Richie has been teaching video production courses at the University since 2008. She came to Tennessee State University from the Walt Disney World Company in Orlando, Fla., where she spent nearly 10 years producing internal communication videos throughout the Disney Company as well as working with the development and production of the weekly news program, Studio News, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. She also worked as a freelance video editor for a variety of video projects, commercials, animation, and a children’s music education project for Warner Brothers Publications.

She has been a postproduction video editor for 12 years. She was the editor for a documentary project called Stephen Burrows World, which screened in New York City at the Fashion Institute of Technology theatre. Her experience also includes directing and editing her own short films for the festival circuit.

Celebrating more than 50 years of service to the ever-evolving global television industry, NATPE continues to redefine itself and the services it provides to meet the needs of its members and the industry. NATPE conducts an annual conference that attracts executives from around the world for sessions featuring leaders from all facets of the global telecommunications industry, along with hundreds of exhibiting companies.

Department of Media Relations
Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

About Tennessee State University

With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.