Communications professor explores varied interests, skills and talents
By: CHRISTIAN HARGAS
Staff Writer
“Media is one of the more complex career fields out there.”
Those are the words of head chair of the Mass Communications Department and professor in Communications and Advertising Programs at St. Louis Community College Meramec, Susan Hunt-Bradford, Hunt-Bradford’s career goes beyond the walls of the campus.
“I have always loved the media, most of the media, since I went to SIU-Carbondale and I always thought of myself as a very creative person,” Hunt-Bradford said.
As a student, she went to SIU-Carbondale to get her bachelor’s degree in advertising, but she also really loved photography, which was something that she planned to major in coming from New York, she said.
“It just didn’t work out for me after one semester,” Hunt-Bradford said.
As a result, she quickly changed her major to advertising and earned her degree in that field. Following college, Hunt-Bradford picked up a job right away at The Suburban Journals in advertising and public relations. However, she never wanted to work for an advertising agency which would be something that she would come to regret, she said.
“I only regret not working for an advertising agency because I would have loved to have the experience to pass along to my students, but I wasn’t thinking about teaching at the time,” Hunt-Bradford said.
While Hunt-Bradford was working for The Suburban Journals, she said she wanted to get a master’s degree which she admitted would be for a reason unknown to her. As a result, she studied at Webster University and earned her master’s degree in advertising while continuing her job at The Suburban Journals.
During her last semester at Webster, she said she overheard two students discussing the idea of teaching at STLCC-Meramec with the very same degree that she just received.
With the idea of teaching now in her mind, Hunt-Bradford got in contact with former film instructor at STLCC-Meramec Diane Carson to begin the application process. Carson would write a letter of recommendation to Dennis Dufer, current STLCC-Meramec Professor, in 1991 which would launch the beginning of her career at the campus.
Hunt-Bradford taught at STLCC-Meramec part time for five years before switching to full time in 1996. She has also taken the reigns of her own advertising direction as she now freelances as an advertiser.
Hunt-Bradford also expressed great interest and passion in other forms of media, including television, radio and film.
“The day I graduated from SIU-Carbondale, I looked over at the film students who were graduating and said to myself, ‘I wish I would have gotten my degree in film,” she said.
Currently, she is working on her degree for television and film at Lindenwood University and plans to be completed by 2015, but she has already begun to make a name for herself in the art. From 2010 to 2011, Bradford created and operated her very own online video and radio talk show, but it only lasted for one year due to the company provider closing down. However, she said she would be interested in doing it again at some point in the future.
Hunt-Bradford was also casted in the Saint Louis Independent Film, Tater Tot, to play the main character’s mother. The film circulated film festivals around the city, which proved to be a great beginning for the actors and actresses involved.
“It was a great experience to get to be a part of an independent film project,” Hunt-Bradford said.
Although her experience is varied in the media industry, Hunt-Bradford said her path to getting where she is now was not an easy one.
“Media is a very competitive field,” she said. “You begin in a very small market and have to work your way up the ladder and some people just don’t understand how hard that truly is.”
