Email address:
amara.aguilar@usc.edu

Twitter handle:
@amara_media

Website:
http://www.amaraaguilar.me

I am currently a Professional academic, teaching journalism

Company:
University of Southern California

Job Title:
Associate Professor of Professional Practice, Digital Journalism

Bio:

Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

At USC, she developed and teaches journalism for mobile and emerging platforms, and interactive media design for publishing, among other courses. She also teaches digital journalism in the graduate program.

Amara helped lead the creation of USC’s JEDI desk, a student team that focuses on creating content natively for social and mobile platforms at Annenberg Media. She collaborated with Annenberg Media faculty and students to develop JEDI (Journalism, Emerging, Digital, Innovation), which embraces innovation and experimentation on emerging platforms at Annenberg Media.

In 2015, Amara was named an Apple Distinguished Educator for her academic leadership focusing on application design, multimedia journalism and innovation in education.

She previously was the journalism department chair and an assistant professor of journalism at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., where she advised student news publications and led the journalism program’s mobile and tablet initiatives. She was honored by the California Journalism Education Coalition as “Journalism Educator of the Year” in the two-year college division in 2014.

Previously Amara taught multimedia as an assistant professor at Pierce College in Los Angeles, where she taught multimedia storytelling, video journalism, podcasting, online journalism, media design and development. There she launched a student-run internet radio station, KPCRadio.com, and developed curriculum for a new mobile application design program.

Before teaching at Pierce, she taught online journalism and design classes at Cal State Long Beach. In addition, she continues to freelance as a writer and a designer (for print and web) and is currently working on independent multimedia and consulting projects. She has written for the Los Angeles Times and was previously a designer and sports reporter for the Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa.

Amara has her master’s degree in communications from Cal State Fullerton. Her research in graduate school focused on blogging in journalism. She is also an Apple Certified Trainer for Final Cut Pro and loves all things tech.

Amara is a member of the Society of Newspaper Design, Online News Association, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and Society of Professional Journalists.

She has done media consulting and training for various professional media organizations, universities, colleges and high schools. She has conducted workshops and training on social media, mobile journalism, video journalism, podcasting, digital storytelling, app design and much more.

Affiliations:
National Association of Hispanic Journalists

Areas of expertise:
Front-end coding, Basic HTML/CSS, WordPress development, Experience building interactive charts and graphics, Experience building interactive news applications, Web production experience, Mobile Video (shooting), Mobile Video (shooting, editing, publishing), Still photography

Speaking Experience
Yes, have led sessions individually, Yes, have spoken on panels, Yes, have taught skills-based or hands-on training sessions (at events)