Jessica McBride, Milwaukee Journalist
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamcbride1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.mcbride100
Jessica’s opinions on this website and all WRN and personal social media pages, including Facebook and X, represent her own opinions and not those of the institution where she works.
Jessica McBride, Milwaukee journalist, and a Wisconsin Right Now contributor, is a national award-winning journalist and journalism educator with more than 25 years in journalism. She is recipient of the UW-Milwaukee Alumni Foundation’s teaching excellence award, for her innovations in teaching and her founding of the Minority Media Association, which champions media diversity. She was the co-founder of the U-View campus television program focusing on bringing diverse voices to campus and improving media diversity.
Jessica McBride’s journalism career started at the Waukesha Freeman newspaper in 1993, covering City Hall. She was an investigative, crime, and general assignment reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a decade. Since 2004, she has taught journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her work has appeared in many news outlets, including Patch.com, WTMJ, WISN, WUWM, Wispolitics.com, OnMilwaukee.com, Milwaukee Magazine, Nightline, El Conquistador Latino Newspaper, Japanese and German television, Channel 58, Reader’s Digest, Twist (magazine), Wisconsin Public Radio, Heavy.com, BBC, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, and others.
Jessica McBride, Milwaukee, Wisconsin area resident, has appeared on true-crime programs for Investigation Discovery, Oxygen Channel, and History Channel. She has a Master’s Degree in Mass Communication from UWM and judges statewide journalism competitions nationwide for press clubs in states ranging from Idaho to Louisiana. Her work is her own and does not represent the institutions where she works, including UWM.
- Jessica McBride is a winner of prestigious state journalism awards for categories including investigative reporting, column writing, blogging, feature story that first appeared on the Web, story that contributed to the community welfare, short feature writing, magazine feature writing, spot-news reporting, explanatory/interpretive reporting, and best continuous reporting. She is the winner of the national Clark Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting. She won regional awards in investigative reporting and personality profile.
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (winner of newspaper staff award).
- Some highlights:
- UW-Milwaukee Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award for academic staff recipient, 2008.
- Co-editor of Media Milwaukee, the department’s national, regional, and state award-winning online news site.
- Founder and faculty advisor for the Minority Media Association of UWM. This is a student media club that champions diversity in the media. Among other activities, the club brings diverse speakers to campus and obtains grants to send diverse students to career fairs sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists and others.
- Has chaired the Curriculum and Internship and Scholarships Committees. Member of the JAMS transition committee. Has served on many departmental committees.
- Helped create and produce content for the U View campus television show on media diversity.
- Created the department’s first Living Learning Community.
- Received student success certificate.
- Conducted scholarly research into the media that was presented internationally in South Africa, Australia, and Belgium. Scholarly work published in prestigious Australian journal.
- Helped develop guidelines on social media for international journalism educators at the World Journalism Education Congress, 2010, 2013.
- Frequent judge of state press association contests (Idaho, Syracuse, New Orleans, etc.).
- Former Advisory Board member of the WISN Political Commitment project.
- Supervised student advertising assignment that was turned into a Super Bowl ad by Chevrolet.
- Convergence and Society: The Participatory Web, University of South Carolina, presenter, “Using Blog Talk Radio in the Classroom.” Fall 2008.
- Student work in classes has won numerous state and regional reporting and writing awards and first-place national Society of Professional Journalists’ awards for online in-depth reporting and for online feature reporting.
- Previous class partnerships with Student Press Law Center of Virginia, Journal Communications NOW, Patch.com, Urban Milwaukee.com, Wisconsin Innocence Project.
- Obtained immersion project grant.
- Jessica McBride teaching evaluations at UWM scored an average of 4.4 on a 0 to 5 scale for all classes from hire to indefinite status.
- Created and runs a professional social media course that supervises the department’s social media pages
Learn more about Jessica here.
Jessica McBride: Education & Career Accomplishments
Jessica’s Journalism career started when she was in college. While studying in college, She worked part-time as Suburban reporter from May 1992 to May 1993 at the Milwaukee Journal – Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She then joined the Waukesha Freeman – Waukesha, Wisconsin as a full-time reporter in 1993. She left this job to serve as a full-time General Assignment and crime reporter at Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, WI in August 1994. Jessica McBride spent years as an award-winning reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She switched to a teaching career in 2000. She is a former columnist for the Waukesha Freeman, On Milwaukee.com, and El Conquistador Latino newspaper (Freeman columns also appear in the West Bend Daily News and Oconomowoc Enterprise. Some of her columns were published in both English and Spanish languages.
Jessica McBride: Teacher
As a teacher, Jessica McBride has been the recipient of a teaching excellence award and is known for her innovations in teaching and her championing of media diversity. In 2000, Jessica McBride joined the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to work as an ad-hoc Lecturer and taught news reporting each semester. She was promoted in 2004 to a full-time position at UWM, and she is a senior lecturer with indefinite status, which she was awarded in 2010 after four levels of review for excellence in teaching, professional creative work, and service.
Examples of Some of Jessica McBride’s Awards
2019
Society of Professional Journalists, national contest
First place: Best online college feature reporting in the country (Project covering Somali immigration to Barron, Wis.). Welcome to Barron
National finalist: Feature writing (Project covering midterm election trends in Crawford County, Wis.) The Village That Flipped Back
National finalist: General news photography (Project covering gun issues in the wake of Parkland, Florida in three states). Photo from March for Our Lives event.
Milwaukee Press Club awards
Best blog (Project covering gun issues). UWM Covers March for Our Lives.
Best blog (Project covering gun issues). UWM Covers the Gun March on Washington * Wisconsin.
Best news story (Project covering gun issues). Two Americas, 32 Miles Apart
Wisconsin College Media Association
Second Place. News photography (Project covering gun issues). Generation Lockdown.
Honorable mention. News photography (Project covering Hurricane Harvey). Hurricane Harvey
Third Place. Feature photography (Project covering Somali immigration to Barron). Welcome to Barron
Second place. In-depth story. (Project covering midterms in Crawford Co, Wis.)
Third place. In-depth story. (Project covering gun issues). Crossing the gun divide
Honorable mention. In-depth story. (Project covering Hurricane Harvey.) Un/Natural Disaster.
First place. Public affairs reporting. (Project covering gun issues). Generation Lockdown
First place. Feature story. (Project covering Somali immigration. Barron, Wisconsin: An immigration story.
2018
Regional Society of Professional Journalists Contest (four states)
First Place. Feature writing. Hurricane Harvey.
First place. General news photography. Hurricane Harvey.
Finalist. Feature writing. (project on Flint Water crisis). Overview story.
Finalist. Feature photography (Flint project). Package of photos.
Finalist. Online in-depth reporting. (Flint project). Finding Flint.
Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association Eric Sevareid awards
First place, multimedia storytelling by a team. In Harvey’s Wake.
Award of merit, multimedia storytelling by a team. Finding Flint.
Regional award, (Hurricane Harvey), overview story.
Wisconsin College Media Association
First place. Public Affairs reporting (Flint project). Finding Flint
First place. In-Depth Story (Mississippi River Valley election project).
First place. Use of multimedia. (Flint). Finding Flint
Second place. Use of multimedia. (Mississippi River Valley).
Milwaukee Press Club
Online use of multimedia. (Flint). Finding Flint
Online use of multimedia. (Hurricane Harvey). In Harvey’s Wake.
Online blog. (Flint). Water is Life
2017
Society of Professional Journalists, Regional
Finalist, (Mississippi project)
Milwaukee Press Club
Long feature story (Flint). It’s not the water
Use of multimedia (Mississippi).
News story (Mississippi project).
Disclosure re Wauwatosa stories: Jessica McBride is the niece of Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride.
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