Philip Todd

Philip A. S. Todd serves as faculty adviser for The Shield, the student news organization at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, where he also teaches journalism.

Phil remembers getting the black-ink bug back in the 70s with a couple of failed startup newsletters created old-school, with a typewriter and lots of carbon paper. Stints on high school and university newspapers led to freelancing, then full-time journalism work for over a decade in south-central Kentucky, including newspapers, magazines and radio.

He left the professional newsroom for faculty advising and university teaching positions for three different student publications and seven different schools in central Oklahoma over the next 23 years. Along the way, he earned a PhD in mass communication at the University of Oklahoma, and his dissertation won the 2020 Penn State Davis Media Ethics Award.

He first joined SPJ’s student chapter at Eastern Kentucky University, and remained involved, including some 20 years with the Oklahoma Pro Chapter, where he served until recently as board secretary. He is also a contest judge, and keeps his foot in the trenches writing the occasional music review and serving as an AP election stringer. He remains passionate about storytelling, editing, and media ethics. 

He and his wife, Heather, along with Bonzo the Irish Wolfhound and Luna the black cat, are ecstatic about everything Evansville, and enjoy supporting the UK WIldcats, the USI “Screagles,” Thunderbolts hockey and now the Indiana Fever.