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K-State Today

July 15, 2019

Katie Olsen accepted as Kopenhaver fellow

Submitted by Steven Smethers

Katie Olsen, teaching assistant professor

Katie Olsen, teaching assistant professor in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, has been named a 2019 Kopenhaver Center fellow of the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication.

Olsen will be recognized at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication national conference in Toronto in August.

The Kopenhaver Center's mission is to empower women professionals and academics in all the fields of communication, in an effort to develop visionaries and leaders who can make a difference in their communities and their profession. The center was established in 2012 by dean emeritus and professor Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver as a pioneering site for the advancement of women in the field of communication.

Olsen will attend the Kopenhaver Center's Women Faculty Moving Forward Workshop as part of the 2019 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference. The workshop is designed to help women faculty members move forward in their careers through mentoring, networking, and preparation for tenure, promotion and administration, or other leadership positions.

Olsen has been teaching advertising courses in K-State's A.Q Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications since 2010. She had previously worked as a marketing account manager and strategist in the Kansas City area. She received her Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, her Master of Business Administration from Rockhurst University and a doctorate from Kansas State University.

Olsen's research centers around the gender gap among women employed in the advertising industry. Currently, only 11% of creative directors in advertising agencies are female, even though women influence more than 80% of consumer spending. Olsen's research seeks to understand more about the qualities of women who achieve leadership in the industry, what the industry can do to support gender equality, and how the current gender gap in the advertising field impacts our culture.