Tracy Lucht, assistant professor of communication and media studies, is in her first year at Simpson. The bulk of Lucht’s work experience has been as a newspaper copy editor. She has written for different papers such as The Des Moines Register, USA Today and The Washington Post.

“My favorite job as a professional was writing the ‘Moneyline’ column on the cover of the Money section of USA Today,” Lucht said. “I had to write short items about any news that we couldn’t make into a larger story, and I loved figuring out how to fit it all in and boil down complicated ideas.”

Lucht got her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland and worked the majority of her graduate career in the field.

“I needed the money,” Lucht said. “So I approach the media as both an academic and a profession. I taught an editing class at the University of Maryland, and I also taught while I was getting my master’s at Iowa State University. This is my first full-time teaching job.”

Outside of class, Lucht is just as busy with her husband, two-year-old son and many hobbies.

“We’re getting to know Indianola,” Lucht said. “The community has been very welcoming to us. I love to ride horses. I took lessons with a former steeplechase jockey when I lived in Northern Virginia. I’d like to start riding again. I also enjoy yoga, although I haven’t been good about exercising since classes started.”

Some students feel she has made a positive impact inside and outside the classroom.

“I think Tracy is a good professor,” senior Jess Nims said. “She relates to her students very well, and genuinely cares about them as students and individuals outside of the classroom. She has a lot of great knowledge to offer her students and does a great job of getting her students involved in class.”

Junior Taylor Browing said she was impressed with Lucht’s teaching tactics.

“She really gets the class involved in topics that we deal with every day and breaks down the issues of gender and race in today’s society like we don’t normally see,” Browing said. “I am genuinely excited to go to her class because it’s very interesting.”

Lucht has taken a unique approach to teaching communication and media studies and students have taken notice.

“Tracy has helped me because she has provided me with the opportunity to take an in-depth look at a lot of media outlets I may have never looked at,” Nims said.

Lucht said she loves all the classes equally.

“The students here are great,” Lucht said. “Journalism 2.0 is a fantastic class because it’s very hands-on. Last semester’s students took a lot of ownership of the Web site they published. I also really enjoy Gender, Race, Class and Media because those issues are so fun to de-construct and look at in different ways.”