Ash Fogle, a passionate and insightful professor in CSUSM’s Communication Department, urges students to think innovatively and make connections both within and outside the classroom.

Fogle began teaching at CSUSM in 2011, and has primarily taught classes within the Communication Department, but has also taught a number of Women’s Studies classes.

Before becoming an instructor at CSUSM, she obtained her first full-time teaching job in 2004 at Niagara University in western New York as an assistant professor in the Communication Studies program in Social Justice.

As an undergraduate student, Fogle attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and majored in Journalism and Political Science.

“I fully intended to be a working journalist…but because I was also taking classes in political science, I started to think about media more as an institution so I got interested in studying media instead of working in media,” said Fogle.

She also served as a student journalist at UNC Chapel Hill.

“I worked at our university desk, so I did campus stories,” Fogle said. “I started as a desk reporter and worked my way up to Assistant University Editor, and my last year I was the Editorial Page Editor.”

After graduating, Fogle went on to attend graduate school to study Mass Communication at the University of Oregon.

In graduate school, Fogle also obtained teaching experience in both Communication and Women’s Studies and received a well-rounded communication education that involved cultural studies, political economy and feminist approaches.

Since beginning her teaching career at CSUSM, Fogle has primarily taught upper division Communication classes, but is teaching COMM 100: Introduction to Communication for the first time this semester.

“I love getting students when they’re first coming to the major,” she said, “because there’s just so much energy in people learning about their field for the first time.”

Likewise, Fogle also enjoys aspects of teaching the more advanced upper-division Communication students.

“They’re at the end of their journey, they’ve been in a lot of classes together and there’s kind of this shared foundation… that we can build on,” said Fogle.

Among these upper-division classes is Fogle’s favorite class to teach, MASS 460: Political Economy of Mass Media.

Through teaching these classes, Fogle has identified her favorite qualities in students on our campus.

“Students here are different than any students I’ve ever had. One of the things I really appreciate is that our students are really engaged,” said Fogle.

“I’m constantly impressed by the ability of our students to juggle and multitask.”

As she teaches within the Communication Department, Fogle wants her students to gain enlightenment as they learn the material.

“I hope that I’ve inspired them to think differently about the issue and see multiple perspectives and think about ways that what we’ve talked about can be relevant on an ongoing basis,” said Fogle.

Throughout her schooling and teaching careers, Fogle has shown a genuine passion for communication. Whether she is teaching upper division courses to students at the end of their undergraduate journey or lower division courses to students who are just beginning, she says that she wants to instill the values of good critical thinking and communication skills in her students, both in and beyond the classroom.