Barbara Schmitz Benish has been an adjunct faculty member at UW Oshkosh since 1994, teaching a variety of news/editorial and advertising classes. She also serves as the Department's Internship Coordinator and organizes mock interviews between students and journalism professionals each semester, as well as serves as executive secretary of NEWSPA. Each spring, the NEWSPA conference brings 400-500 high school students to the UW Oshkosh campus to learn from media professionals. In addition, NEWSPA holds newspaper and yearbook competitions annually, allowing students to get feedback from professionals on how to improve their skills.

Benish earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism at UW Oshkosh in December 1982, with an emphasis in both the news/editorial and advertising/public relations sequences. In 1991, she earned her master’s degree in business administration, also from UW Oshkosh, with an emphasis in marketing.

She has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor at weekly and daily newspapers, and has interviewed former Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan. Today, as a free-lance writer, she mainly covers aviation, conservation enforcement and education for both print and Web publications. She has interviewed actor Harrison Ford, Gen. Chuck Yeager, who was the first to break the sound barrier, and astronauts such as Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper, who took part in space shuttle missions to the International Space Station in 2006 and 2008.

In addition, she has also done some work in print and television advertising for Workforce Communications, as well as other businesses.

Benish has twice been named an Appreciated Professor by UW Oshkosh students.

Office: Clow 106L -- Phone: 424-7145 -- E-mail: benish@uwosh.edu