Dr. Vincent Filak is an award-winning teacher, scholar and college media adviser. He currently works as an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Prior to his arrival at UW-O, he was an associate professor of journalism at Ball State University where he served as the adviser to the Ball State Daily News. During his tenure at Ball State, the Daily News took home more awards than any other student newspaper in the country, including seven Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crowns, three Indiana Collegiate Press Association Division 1 Paper of the Year awards and one Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker. It was also the center of the university's marketing campaign which lauded the paper as "the most award-winning college newspaper in the country."

In 2007, he was named an Honor Roll recipient by College Media Advisers, Inc., an award given to distinguished advisers with fewer than five years experience as an adviser. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he helped resurrect the Daily Cardinal, the country's sixth-oldest student daily paper through the savvy negotiation of more than $137,000 worth of debt. His efforts landed him on the list of the paper's 110 Most Notable Alumni, which was released in 2002. He currently sits on both the Daily Cardinal Alumni Association and the Daily Cardinal boards of directors.

As a scholar, Filak has received nine top conference paper awards, including those from the Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Broadcast Education Association and the International Public Relations Society of America. In 2006, he was named the BSU College of Communication, Information, and Media's Distinguished Researcher, marking the first time that award had gone to a junior faculty member. His research has been published in Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Newspaper Research Journal, the Atlantic Journal of Communication, Visual Communication Quarterly, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Educational Psychology and the British Journal of Social Psychology. He is also the winner of CMA's Nordin Research Award, which goes to the best research paper completed on a topic pertaining to media advisers within a given year.

He serves on the editorial review boards of The Atlantic Journal of Communication, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator and Newspaper Research Journal. He is the vice president of College Media Advisers, a former two-term executive director of Indiana Collegiate Press Association and the former adviser of the Ball State chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists. He produced the book "Convergent Journalism: An Introduction" with Stephen Quinn. He has also contributed chapters to the Grusin and Utt book, "Media in an American Crisis: Studies of Sept. 11, 2001" and "Understanding Media Convergence."

Filak holds a BA in Journalism (print and broadcast double emphasis) and Communication Arts (radio, TV, film history and speech rhetoric double emphasis) from UW-Madison, an master's in journalism from UW-Madison and a Ph.D. in journalism from the University of Missouri.

He lives in Omro, Wisconsin with his wife, Amy, and their daughter, Zoe.

Office: Clow 106F -- Phone: 424-0352 -- E-mail: filakv@uwosh.edu