Donna Downs

Associate Professor of Communication, Yearbook Advisor

I Serve in...

Communication Department

Education

• EdD, Adult, Community, and Higher Education—Journalism, Ball State University
• MA, English and Communication, Ball State University
• BA, English and Speech Communication, Indiana University—Bloomington

Career Accomplishments

• 9 years of part time teaching
• 5 years as Associate Vice President of University Relations
• 22 years of full time teaching

Highlights of my career: Watching one of my graduates (Chrissie Thompson Fink) receive a Pulitzer Prize before she hit 40; following my graduates' lives and seeing them succeed in so many ways; helping my students create and carry out award-winning public relations campaigns; helping my students learn how to write funded grant proposals; working with my PRSSA students to carry out Shop the Loop and the Winter Formal, walking alongside students to create a yearbook. I've published various poems in online literary journals and in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Attitude of Gratitude (2022). My children's picture book, Always and Forever, is slated for spring publication with Redemption Press.

Featured Scholarship

"Creating Classroom Camaraderie to Promote Learning: 3 Strategies" (Scholarly Teacher, December 2022)

Dissertation: A study of Jay Kesler's leadership during his 15-year tenure at Taylor University (2005)

About

I came to Taylor as an adjunct professor in 1987 and quickly grew to love its mission, its students, its values. As I’ve aged, Taylor has become a dedicated friend, more precious than gold. Students revitalize campus each fall. Watching frightened freshmen grow into settled seniors, ready to meet the world, is both gratifying and humbling. So many of my life’s pages are full of paragraphs written by those who have entered my door, sat in my office, cried with me, laughed with me, and learned with me.

I like writing, reading, spending time with family and friends, taking photographs, and listening to 70s music. I also enjoy board games and playing with my grandkids.