Foster, Brent

Dr. Brent M. Foster came to the CSUF College of Communications in 2007 with the charge of teaching Broadcast Journalism in the Department of Communications and producing television content for KCET-TV Los Angeles. His PhD in Communication is from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Before teaching at CSU, Fullerton, Dr. Foster taught Broadcast Media for four years at the University of Central Missouri where, among other things, he was an award winning producer and President of the Missouri Broadcast Educators Association. Before joining the faculty at UCM, Professor Foster taught for four years at Missouri Valley College, a private school in Marshall Missouri. While at MVC, he also served as General Manager of the campus radio station KMVC-FM and MVC-TV facilities. His academic career direction was the result of four years on air at KCMW-FM, a 100,000watt NPR radio station in Kansas City Missouri.

Dr. Foster, an honorable US Army veteran, used his G.I. Bill to remain debt free throughout his educational pursuits. His BS in Broadcasting and Film and MA in Communication/Mass Communication are both from the University of Central Missouri. In 2004, Professor Foster successfully defended his dissertation to complete his PhD in Communication at The University of Missouri-Columbia.

Dr. Foster is now a tenured Associate Professor at CSUF and has experienced many successes. For starters, Professor Foster was awarded Outstanding Educator of the Year within the College of Communications in 07/08. He also advised the winning team of the 2008 Fox News Challenge, which received national attention, not to mention $20K in prize money and appearance on Fox and Friends in New York. From 2008-2011 much of Dr. Foster’s time outside the classroom was dedicated to creating and producing OC Insight, a TV program that originated at CSUF and aired on KCET-TV in Los Angeles. The show received distinction and secured a 2011 Best of Competition award for TV Hard News Reporting for Dr. Foster. That same year, Professor Foster was honored to be coauthor of a Highly Commended Paper Award for publishing a cross-discipline article with the CSUF College of Business. At this time, Dr. Foster was serving as the Journalism Concentration Head. In 2012, Professor Foster was selected as a Broadcast Education Association Ignite Scholar and was also the co-recipient of a $41K Robert R. McCormick Foundation and Poynter Institute grant. In 2013 he was the executive producer for the Autism documentary 1 in 88, which received 3^rd place at the 55^th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards, hosted by the Los Angeles Press Club.

In 2014, Dr. Foster was appointed as the CSUF Faculty Coordinator for General Education and was part of a $500,000 dollar grant Helmsley Foundation Grant. He recently shot GoPro footage in the Rocky Mountains for a documentary being produced by Colorado State University. He Co-led teams of CSUF students on International Journalism trips to Guatemala and Costa Rica. He also created and taught, Alternative Video Production, a course that focuses on telling stories with GoPro’s and Drones. In 2016, Dr. Foster presented another BEA Ignite Scholar talk titled, “Shh, I just broke the law with my students,” which detailed the difficulties of flying drones in a classroom setting.

In the fall of 2015, Dr. Foster was appointed Director of the CSUF First Year Experience. He was instrumental in re-imagining the First Year offerings at Cal State Fullerton including changing the name, rewriting curriculum and building new partnerships.

In the fall of 2016, Dr. Foster was asked to serve as Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies and General Education, where he now serves in the Office of Academic Programs.