Communications Expert. Dedicated. Community Connector.
Decades before the phrase “fake news” entered the cultural zeitgeist, Jessica Z. Brown saw the handwriting on the wall and took action. As a journalist and communications professional, she watched as behemoth corporations ate up media companies and entered the digital and internet age. She knew that the public would need to scrutinize the avalanche of news and information coming their way.
So, in 2004, Brown, working with others in the field, founded the Gateway Media Literacy Partnership Inc. (GMLP), whose mission is to help people better understand the complex messages we receive from television, radio, internet, newspapers, billboards, video games, music, advertising and others. By developing critical thinking skills, people can make better decisions about consuming and creating media.
Brown’s background is ideally suited for this endeavor. With a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in media communications, she spent five years at KSDK-TV as a news producer and writer; 18 years in marketing at Southwestern Bell Corporation; and is now a full adjunct professor in communications at Webster University.
Brown has been married for 32 years to Curt Billhymer, a retired communications professor at Lindenwood University. Her daughter, Jackie, lives in Minneapolis, and her stepdaughter, Leslie, is in Philadelphia. Here are some thoughts about what Brown has learned from her journalism career and from her close-knit family.
Journalism is my passion and I’m optimistic about its future.
I understand how frustrating journalism is right now with the constant barrage of messages that hit us without time for reflection. Journalists suddenly show up as pundits and we have to discern between opinions and news. And legacy news operations are being decimated. But good, trustworthy news reporting is alive and well. There is a diversity of voices, just in newer formats and in difference places, including nonprofit media organizations.
All the innovation going on makes me salivate.
I look at the activities in St. Louis at the Cortex Innovation Community, especially the Venture Café, and it’s exciting. My career has amazed me because I have the ability to keep learning and understand what’s happening contextually in other fields.
My daughter and I are laughing partners.
My own parents accepted me with open arms and boosted my confidence. I wanted to teach my daughter, Jackie, to feel comfortable, no matter where she found herself, whatever the milieu. I wanted her not to hide away. She’s my laughing partner and the person who can detect the quiver in my voice.
“You called it from the stage and perhaps that is prophetic.”
That’s what my high school guidance counselor told me because I was in charge of programming for assemblies, and he saw there could be some kind of future in it. I learned to bring people together and developed confidence on stage. That served me well as I created partnerships throughout my career, understanding the synergies that come from connecting organizations and people.
My mother embodied an authentic “joie de vivre.”
She was French – raised in Paris – and she met my father in Marseille, where he was a battalion surgeon serving the U.S. army during World War II. I remember her as an elegant woman who loved life. She’d send me to school with pâté de foie gras in my lunchbox! More than anything, she was courageous, and, in fact, we had the word “courageous” put on her tombstone.
Change is good.
Change keeps your mind working and keeps you on your toes. It forces you to ask, “What am I going to do?” and “How am I going to put my skills to work?” It is difficult, but revaluating your situation is energizing, especially meeting new people. Things work out, but if you can’t deal with change, you’re in trouble.
When your parents are dying, you selfishly want them to stay alive.
I took early retirement at Southwestern Bell, in part, because my parents needed more care. At one point, my mother was in the hospital for 3 ½ months and I will never forget that window at Barnes-Jewish. You desperately don’t want your parents to die, but that is selfish for your own needs. You have to be respectful and realize that it is their time.
