Two new faces in the University Communications Department at Jackson State University will help present JSU’s face to the world.
Olivia Goodheart and Jim Ewing started working in September, said Eric Stringfellow, executive director of University Communications and interim chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. “Both are consummate professionals with a long history of achievement in journalism and public relations,” Stringfellow said.
Goodheart, an educator and marketing, advertising and communications professional for more than 20 years, is the new director of public relations at Jackson State University, Stringfellow said.
She is the former founding partner and vice president of client services of Fahrenheit Creative Group LLC, former principal and creative director of Quicksilver Creative, both of Jackson, and creative director and owner of The Thomas Agency in Memphis.
A former board member of the American Advertising Federation in Jackson, her clients have included American Heart Association, City of Jackson, City of Memphis, International Paper/Hammermill Brand, National Civil Rights Museum, and the University of Mississippi/William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, among others.
Goodheart has a long association with JSU, as an instructor in the Mass Communications Department, 1982-84, after serving as director of the Journalism program at Tougaloo College. Most recently, she was president of the JSU Mass Communications Department Advisory Council.
She holds a bachelor’s of science degree in Mass Communications from Jackson State, a master’s in journalism from The Ohio State University, and post-graduate studies at the University of Michigan.
Ewing is media relations specialist. A former writer and editor with The Clarion-Ledger, Ewing has more than two decades of experience in journalism and public relations.
He is a three-time winner of the J. Oliver Emmerich Award, the Mississippi Press Association’s highest honor for commentary and has won national Best of Gannett and regional Associated Press Media Editors honors for his writing and editing.
He serves, or has served, on numerous state, regional and national boards of directors. Among them, he is a member of the Administrative Council (Governing Board) of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) USDA grant program affiliated with the University of Georgia.
He most recently was outreach coordinator for the five-state Gulf South region of the National Center for Appropriate Technology which administers the ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.