Faculty Profile

Degrees

PHD, Pennsylvania State Univ; MA, Duquesne Univ; BA, CUNY City Coll

Bio

Dr. Cliff Jernigan was born and raised in Harlem, New York. He received his B.A. from The City College of New York in communications, his M.A. from Duquesne University in telecommunications management, and his PhD from The Pennsylvania State University in interdisciplinary media studies. His dissertation “Creating Media Education Programs for Minority Teenagers," served as a model for instructional programs he later developed and implemented. Dr. Jernigan was the first African American to be awarded a PhD from the College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University. He was an Associate Professor in the College of Communication at the Pennsylvania State University for seven years, teaching video production and television programming. He served as Associate Professor in the Communications Department at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, where he developed and taught the university's first media literacy course. He also taught television and video production at the intermediate and advanced levels while at Wilkes University and served as the university’s Television Manager. Beginning in 1999, he served as the first official Chair for the Department of Mass Communications at Claflin University, South Carolina's oldest historically Black university. His dissertation served as the framework for designing the department’s curricular approach. Dr. Jernigan served as the Acting Executive Director for the New Opportunities At Hofstra (NOAH) program. The NOAH program is designed to identify and admit talented, underrepresented students whose economic and educational background would not otherwise provide them with the opportunity to fully develop their scholastic abilities.

From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Jernigan served as Hofstra’s Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of Graduate Studies. Prior to that he served as the first Vice Dean for the School of Communication at Hofstra University. He has also served as the Acting Dean for the School of Communication and as Chair of the Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations. He more than 30 years experience in higher education both as a professor and as an administrator.

Dr. Jernigan has 18 years of experience in local television news as a reporter, cinematographer, videographer, and special assignments producer. He also briefly served as a freelance still photographer for USA Today. In 1978 The Ohio National Guard awarded him its Outstanding Service Award for his coverage of the emergency rescue efforts brought about by the historic blizzard that hit the state that year. He was the Associated Press Photographer of the Year in 1983 (Pennsylvania region, television broadcast), and four times he won The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania’s Golden Quill award (Investigative Reporting, Enterprise Reporting, Mini-Documentary, Sports Coverage). He worked in television news at WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh, PA) as a videographer and later as a Special Assignments Producer. He also worked at WCMH- TV (Columbus, OH) as the part of the Investigative Unit and the lead sports videographer. He began his television career at WOWK-TV (Huntington, W.VA) where he was the state’s first African American on-air reporter. He later became the primary cinematographer for the news department.

His research interests include media literacy, media education ND minorities and the media. His PhD coursework focused on British cultural studies. In 1989 he developed a pilot media education program for minorities in Pittsburgh, PA, and State College, PA. Dr. Jernigan has presented papers at conferences such as the Broadcast Education Association, New York State Communication Association, African American Historical Research and Preservation Association, and National Association of African American Studies.

Recent Courses Taught