Meet…
Dr. Jessica McKinley is an assistant professor in communication at Sinclair Community College. This semester she teaches interpersonal communication, both online and face-to-face, and mass communication.
Why She is interesting…
McKinley is a native of Dayton, Ohio and graduated from Carroll High School. She went on to graduate from the University of Dayton, obtaining her master’s degree in communication. Then she obtained her Ph.D. in health communication from Purdue University.
“I enjoy the content [of communication] and as I furthered my education I realized just how much I could do with communication, so I went into research methods and got my Ph.D. in health communication,” said McKinley. “I was able to tie in a lot of things that I loved like science and biology with communication.”
Aside from being a professor, McKinley works on health campaign design and implementation. She says she’s a sports fanatic, who loves the Cleveland Browns, along with playing soccer. She enjoys cooking international dishes and shopping in international grocery stores. She is married with two children; a one-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son.
McKinley said what sets her apart from other professors is that she understands student life because she recently obtained her Ph.D. She knows what it’s like to deal with school, family life and work, and it plays a role in the approach she takes in teaching her courses.
“I also like what I do,” she said. “I have fun and I hope that that shows in the classes. I look forward to going to work every day. Getting to know students and staying in contact with them makes me happy to stay here.”
She says that she wants students to understand the value of a wellrounded education and put into perspective how the courses they take apply to various majors and real-life experiences.
“I think people believe that when they take a specific course, that’s all they should be learning, but really what we should be thinking about is how it all ties together because that’s what a well-rounded education should look like,” she said.
McKinley said she likes teaching. She has been teaching for 10 years, four of those years have been at Sinclair, she said that if she could do anything else, she’d teach soccer or work for the Center for Disease Control on health campaigns and research.
“This is an investment and you have to put the time in, and it’s hard,” McKinley said. “But if you put the time in it will pay off. Sacrifice a little bit of time now so that you have the career that you want in the future. You don’t want to work two or three jobs forever. You want to have a career, and you want to be able to support your family.”