Sarah Cavanah

Sarah Cavanah is an assistant professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. She joined the KU faculty in 2024. Sarah is interested in how access to quality news and information impacts the health of communities, especially in rural areas. In particular, she is motivated by trying to find ways to match audience media use to sustainable ways of supporting quality news production. Sarah is also an active member of the research community around scholastic media, including how it impacts student learning outcomes and motivations for students and advisers to become involved. Her work for student media non-profit organizations led to her involvement with Real Duck Tails, a student-led science communication social effort, sparking an interest in student media beyond traditional news production, as well as science communication overall.

Sarah’s work has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Communication & Sport, Biological Conservation and Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics. She is a former research chair and current newsletter editor for the Scholastic Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Formerly a journalist and public relations officer, Sarah has been involved with Oklahoma Scholastic Media, the Minnesota High School Press Association, North Dakota Student Media, the National Scholastic Press Association and Associated Collegiate Press. She has provided hundreds of critiques and evaluations of newspapers, websites and yearbooks for these organizations over the years, as well as giving dozens of workshop presentations.

Before joining the faculty at KU, Sarah was a tenured professor at Southeast Missouri State University and a tenure-track professor at the University of North Dakota. Prior to returning to graduate school, she worked in higher education public relations and as an assistant editor at Mother Earth News Magazine. In high school, she was a reporter at a rural weekly newspaper, eventually becoming the full-time editor. While a college student journalist, her coverage of the opening of the Oklahoma City National Memorial won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s top prize for news writing. She was also honored in several categories by the Associated Collegiate Press and Oklahoma Press Association and was selected as a Dow Jones News Fund copy editing intern, placed a Newsday on Long Island, N.Y. Throughout her career, she has maintained a freelance writing and consulting practice, producing dozens of books and workbooks for middle readers, as well as promotional information and marketing materials for small businesses.