Sybril Bennett, Ph.D.
Executive Director,
New Century Journalism Program
Belmont University
bennetts@mail.belmont.edu
Dr. Sybril Bennett is the Executive Director of the New Century Journalism Program and Associate Professor of Journalism at Belmont University. During her tenure at Belmont, she has helped increase enrollment in the journalism program and raised more than $100K in grant money, created the Speakers’ Series with local, national and international journalists, started the Scripps Howard Foundation Summer Journalism Camp for high school students and has been an ambassador for the university in a plethora of ways. With worldwide connections, she has saved the university more than $120K in speaker’s fees in just five years.
In the summer of 2007, Dr. Bennett has attended the prestigious Harvard Management Development Program. She also was a participant in the Scripps Howard Summer Leadership Academy to be held at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In addition, Dr. Bennett has earned promotion and tenure to the rank of Associate Professor. Most recently she was an academic fellow at the American Press Institute’s Leadership in Disruptive Times seminar where she engaged in an extensive exercise at the Battle at Gettysburg Civil War site.
Further, she has played an instrumental role in program and curriculum development. Belmont boasts one of the only truly converged undergraduate journalism programs in the country. As a matter of fact, the program was featured as part of the Convergence for Educators Seminar hosted by the Poynter Institute. Dr. Bennett was a fellow in 2004. The program was also recognized in a list of 40 programs by Editor and Publisher. Dr. Bennett has attended numerous sessions about convergence including spending a summer at the Ifra Newsplex in Columbia, South Carolina, attending the Online News Association conference and even helping to host a national conference on blogging. Her teaching portfolio includes: online practicum, TV newscasting, Broadcast News, Covering Diverse Populations, mass media and society, the business of news and multimedia seminars for groups like the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute and the Center for Non-Profit Management.
Dr Bennett is also a two-time Emmy award winning journalist. She has worked behind-the-scenes at ABC in Milwaukee, CBS in Chicago and CBS in Nashville. Most recently, she was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor/talk show host at CBS in Nashville where she still fills in from time to time. With an earned Ph.D. from one of the top 20 research institutions in the country, Dr. Bennett is one of a handful of broadcast professionals with the terminal credential and extensive experience in television news. She has worked in many positions behind the scenes including as an associate producer, desk assistant, news writer, assignment desk editor and teleprompter operator.
Here is just a sample of what she has helped some of her former students achieve: internships at the Oprah Winfrey Show, Freedom Forum, Nashville Public Radio, FOX news Chicago, Regis & Kelly, and local ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX as well as newspaper internships. Some of Dr. Bennett’s former students are working at or have worked at: KCBS in Los Angeles, WashingtonPost.com, CBS in New York, WHDH in Boston and one of the most famous is currently Miss USA 2007. So this executive is well connected.
Her personal mission is to educate, empower and engage people by giving them access to information, networks and resources. She holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, a B.A. in broadcast and electronic communications from Marquette University and an M.Ed in College Student Personnel from Loyola University of Chicago.