Backpack students sit down with Associate Professor Thiel-Stern to talk about the early internet, strategic communication and the ambience at Murphy Hall.
If you’ve ever taken digital advertising at Hubbard, you’ve probably noticed one thing about Teaching Associate Professor Shayla Thiel-Stern: she’s still excited about the internet. Before Tiktok or Instagram, and long before anyone really knew what a “social media strategy” was, Thiel-Stern was helping build The Washington Post for the web. From the birth of online journalism to the rise of social media and the explosion of digital marketing, she’s seen it all — and she’s ready to guide students in a world where digital media never stands still.
Thiel-Stern has spent her career using storytelling, strategy and emerging digital technologies. From helping launch the Post online in 1995 to leading multi-platform content strategy initiatives for organizations like UnitedHealthcare’s Level2, Twin Cities PBS and ServeMinnesota, she has consistently worked at pivotal moments of media transformation. Along the way, she’s built her own consulting and coaching practice, Uncommon Teal, where she aids organizations and leaders in using digital platforms authentically to connect with audiences while building thought leadership.
We sat down with Thiel-Stern to discuss how the evolution of digital media transforms leadership, storytelling and strategy in campaigns — and how she encourages curiosity, creativity and purposeful communication in both her students and her consulting work.
Backpack: How did you end up at Hubbard?
Shayla Thiel-Stern: I joined Hubbard in 2007 after teaching at DePaul University in Chicago. I had been there for three years when I was recruited since there was an opening for a new media journalism professor. At the time, there was a huge “new media initiative” in the College of Liberal Arts — and I say “new media” because this was the early 2000s, so it was still pretty new. Hubbard was hiring several digital media focused scholars to conduct research, develop curriculum and teach in that area.
My research was about adolescent girls and social media when I started as a tenure-track assistant professor in 2007. I did research and taught in all kinds of areas of the curriculum and worked here through 2014.
After that I was ready for a change. I left academia to work in marketing (primarily in digital, social media and content strategy) for 10 years. However, I missed teaching and returned to Hubbard as a fulltime Teaching Associate Professor in fall of last year.
B: You were part of the team that originally launched The Washington Post to the web. What did that moment teach you about digital transformation that still applies today?
ST: That was a crazy moment in time. I got an internship working on the internet, or as they called it back then: the World Wide Web.. It was 1995. No one had really heard about it. I barely knew anything about it. I had just moved to Washington, D.C., from Iowa after graduating from the University of Iowa, and I got an internship at the Chronicle of Higher Education, launching an online publication for graduate students. Soon after I wound up getting my first job at The Washington Post.
When we were there, it was just a really fun crew. Many of the people were from the Post on paper and were ready to move on to something completely new, and they were combined with a whole bunch of recent college graduates full of energy and fresh ideas. We were allowed to take chances, be creative and figure out what that new media could be and shape it ourselves.
That's an amazing opportunity that still applies today. With AI, social media and the ongoing development of the digital realm, there's still room to be open and shape it how we want to. It's harder now because it's so governed by corporate overlords, but I still think there's opportunity. I am still bullish on digital media, but it's still about using your imagination and trying to figure out where you can find those spaces to carve out something interesting.
B: You run Uncommon Teal. What aspects of this business do you bring into the classroom?
ST: I would say it's definitely a two-way street. I like to hope that I'm always learning when I'm teaching, especially in Digital Advertising and Strategic Communication Campaigns. You have to stay on top of what the trends are and what the world is doing, and I feel really lucky to be able to do that in my full-time job at Hubbard.
Uncommon Teal is definitely a part-time job, but I will try to take a lot of my work in that realm and bring it into the classroom. Most of the work I’ve done in the past year has been focused on content strategy and content development for websites and newsletters. I think I probably bring in more content strategy and content development topics than some other professors might simply because it's an interest and a focus of mine.
I would also say social media content development is a huge area of interest and a part of my work. In the consulting realm, I often coach or work with clients who don't necessarily know all that much about it. I often feel like my students tend to know more about it than my clients, or they're more up on the trends than the clients. But that's just the reality — the clients are hiring me to help them, right? I feel like I learn on both sides. So it's not so much a matter of bringing my consulting work into the classroom; it’s really always staying on top of the trends, what's new and being strategic in both places.
B: As the current Ad Club advisor, what do you see as the value of student organizations and preparing students for careers in communications?
ST: I love Ad Club in part because it’s a community. It's a community of students who — whether they know it or not — are networking with each other already. So even though the aim of that student group is to bring in professionals or go to where these professionals’ workplaces are and learn more about their work, I really think that the true value of student organizations is students working together; even just gathering, talking and eating pizza.
I always say that this is one of the easiest groups to join, unless you're an officer. You just come in every week, sit down, listen and take it in. You don't have to do anything else, though you could connect with the speakers afterwards on LinkedIn and use what you learn. Mostly, it’s about taking it in, sitting next to some like-minded folks and enjoying a nice Tuesday evening while learning and networking naturally.
B: What is your Hubbard Hot Take?
ST: I have so many.
Hot take number one: the lighting in Murphy Hall is terrible. We should get rid of all the overheard lighting and just install wall sconces and desk lamps.
Second, Hubbard should expand — just start taking over and annexing the side hallways into Vincent. We’re out of space, and I think adding another floor with a coffee shop would be amazing. I’ve also been wanting a roof deck, like the one at Carlson, where students could grab coffee and enjoy the view.
Finally, my last hot take, which I think may be the hottest, is that the Media Center was better as a library. It was the Eric Sevareid Library before. While the digital hub is fine and can stay, the rest of the space feels too sterile without the books.
To learn more about Shayla Thiel-Stern and her work, visit her CLA faculty profile.
Text by Ashaar Ali, photo by Jessica Chung, Office Hours logo by Reagan Frystak, Backpack students.