Prof. Anita Fleming-Rife |
Dr. Anita Fleming-Rife is a Visiting Full Professor in Africana Studies, but will also teach a course in Journalism in the spring. She most recently left Grambling State University. Prior to that she taught at Penn State as well as at UNC in Journalism. Her undergraduate and master’s degrees are from UNC, and her Ph.D. is from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Dr. Fleming-Rife served as the project manager for the Public Opinion Polling Program in the United Nations Department of Public Information in New York. She was also the Public Information Officer for the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOMII). Upon completion of her communications degree from UNC, she worked her way up at an NBC-television affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her first job was as associate producer. Later she would work in various positions, among them weekend news producer, investigative team field producer, and researcher.
As a researcher, Dr. Fleming-Rife’s work has included international communications with a particular focus on news coverage in Africa. In addition, she has conducted research related to minority representation in media content. Her most recent work involves newspapers’ framing of educational policy. She is currently engaged in minority health disparities research and has done several conference presentations in this area.
Dr. Fleming-Rife has done a great deal of work in Africa. She has worked in Nairobi, Kenya with the United Nations. She is on the Board of Directors of an NGO that does its work in Tanzania, East Africa. She established relationships with South African universities, both in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and she co-chaired the Pennsylvania delegation to the National Summit on Africa in Washington, DC.
The accomplishment of which she is proudest is having been awarded distinguished membership in the National Society of Collegiate Scholars for outstanding contributions to the classroom, the campus, and the community. Her students were responsible for this recognition, and they also nominated her for teaching excellence.
She has three children and four grandchildren. Two of her three children attended UNC.
