Quick Facts

• Help develop and produce Stephens’ Citizen Jane Film Festival
• Complete a required internship and study or intern abroad
• Work for the College's newspaper, Stephens Life, or KWWC, our student-run radio station

Faculty

Chair, Department of Digital Film and Media
Kerri Yost is a filmmaker inspired by Midwest themes and interested in social issues and film. Yost learned filmmaking overseas in London and co-founded a production company in Poland, producing and directing short films, educational videos and video art.

After returning home to Missouri, Yost focused on documentaries about her own community. Her films have won awards at international film festivals and have been broadcast on stations, including PBS, Free Speech T.V., and Discovery Channel, and televised around the world. Yost is also passionate about creating more opportunities for women in the film industry and is the founder and executive director of the Citizen Jane Film Festival. Yost received her B.A. in English from the University of Missouri and her M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from Central Missouri State University.

Emily Mead is a full-time instructor of journalism at Stephens College and faculty adviser to the award-winning student newspaper Stephens Life. A California native, Mead received her bachelor’s degree in communications studies with an emphasis in journalism from Sonoma State University in 2006.

Shortly after, she left for the Midwest to pursue a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. In Spring 2009, she completed her graduate studies with specific research on the dynamics of teaching journalism at a small college. Her professional experience includes work at the Columbia Missourian as a designer and assistant news editor.

Chase Thompson has been involved in the Columbia film scene since 2004, when he graduated with a B.S. in Art (Photography) from Columbia College. Thompson is a fourth-generation teacher with a passion for helping students find their creative voice through film.

Aside from teaching at Stephens, Thompson is president of Columbia Access Television, where he helps local residents produce their own television programs. Thompson, who is also a musician and an independent filmmaker, is producing three feature-length documentaries on soul legend Roy C. Hammond, Sir Lattimore Brown, and the blacklisted author John Zielinski.

Jonna Wiseman, KWWC-FM station manager and Integrated Media faculty member, is a 1991 Stephens College graduate with a B.A. in Communications/Radio.

She has worked as a radio commercial producer, on-air host, creative director, actor and voiceover talent for TV, radio, industrials and radio theatre. A few of her favorite character voices can be heard on the 2006 Exclaim Entertainment Christmas DVD “The Very First Noel,” narrated by Andy Griffith. Wiseman has taught Media & Culture, Writing for Mass Media, Women & Media, Radio Production, Presentation & Performance, American Cinema and Film Noir.