After three years of teaching at Shippensburg University, Professor Colin Campbell is ready for the next chapter.

As the semester comes to a close, so does Campbell’s time at SU. He will begin teaching at Morgan State University next fall. 

Campbell is currently a communications professor at Shippensburg University, and he will continue to teach communication at Morgan State University. It is a subject that Campbell is deeply passionate about. 

“Communication is at the heart of everything,” he said. “That’s one of the foundational experiences as a human is to be able to communicate. Communication is one of the oldest actions that a human can really be a part of.” 

Campbell is currently teaching a select topic political science course, titled “Black Americans in Contemporary Politics.” The course teaches students about Black political actors in American history. 

Even if it is outside of his normal courses, Campbell cares deeply about the content of the class. His ultimate goal with the course was teaching SU students about people they may have not learned about previously. 

“I just had a student today tell me today how she was happy that this class was offered because there isn’t much offered here in the vein of understanding Black culture [and] contributions of the Black experience,” he said. 

Campbell is also a teaching fellow from the Frederick Douglas Teaching Fellowship. He acts as an adviser for the SU chapter of the Frederick Douglas Institute (FDI), which is a collaborative of several schools within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

“FDI is one of those spaces where students can go and feel emboldened and feel at ease to have open discussions about what’s on their mind, but also to feel valued and to feel respected within that space,” Campbell said. “That’s been part of one of the most rewarding experiences at Shippensburg.” 

Campbell is hoping to find a similar program at Morgan State University. In addition, Campbell is looking forward to the opportunities teaching at Morgan State University will provide him. 

He is excited to be able to continue teaching, as he enjoys being able to work with students and teach them new information. Campbell comes from a family of teachers, and he described his call to teaching higher education as something that “would happen eventually.” 

Before completing his doctoral degree, Campbell worked as an adjunct professor at Howard University, where he completed his master’s degree, and at American University. He went on to be a full-time professor at Howard University before coming to SU. 

Prior to his career as a professor, Campbell was a journalist. He started his career working at BET News, where he did everything from writing to producing interviews to occasionally anchoring on broadcasts. He worked for different media companies around the United States along with doing freelance work as a multimedia journalist under his company LoneMan Media. 

Campbell still considers himself to be a journalist. He created a website, panafricanreport.com, to inform people about news across the African diaspora. He has plans of adding content about underrepresented news. 

One of the things Campbell is most looking forward to about his upcoming position at Morgan State University is the opportunity to give back to the Black community. 

“We see a lot of students who are in need or just really looking for the opportunity to get a good education, which not a lot of Black students get that opportunity,” he said. “I get to give back.” 

While Campbell is ready to start the next chapter of his journey as a professor, he is fond of his time at Shippensburg University. The central Pennsylvania location is very different from his previous experience in the capitol, and he is pleased with the time he has spent here. 

Campbell said, “Whenever we’re uncomfortable, and we intentionally try to work through that discomfort, we always grow. I felt like I did a lot of growth here at Shippensburg.”

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