Steve Rottinghaus

Steve Rottinghaus has been since 2015 the career and outreach coordinator for the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, where he works closely with students seeking internships and employment. He advises the KU Ad Club and KU PRSSA in addition to teaching a class on professional development and a class on career exploration and planning. Since March 2021, he has hosted the Cheers to Careers podcast focusing on the career tracks of KU alumni and is up to 118 episodes through the spring 2026 semester. He is a frequent speaker and presenter at Kansas Association of Colleges and Employers conferences and Kansas Scholastic Press Association events. Since December 2025, he has served as the president of KACE.

Before joining KU, Steve was the public relations director for 10 years at Baker University. His duties at Baker included media relations, managing primary social media accounts, coordinating photography, internal communications, and serving as the lead writer and editor for the alumni magazine. He previously worked 20 years in newspapers with stints at the Topeka Capital-Journal, Dallas Times-Herald, Manhattan Mercury and Lawrence Journal-World with an emphasis on sports writing, column writing, feature writing, editing and page design. As the special sections editor at the Lawrence-Journal-World for three years, he managed the content for the annual KU Today publication. He also was a sponsor and mentor to the Journal-World’s teen advisory board.