"In addition to being a faculty member and academic administrator, my four-decade career included news writing, managing government public information, hosting broadcast talk shows, and producing multi-media planetarium programs. My titles and employers varied, but my mission was always to meet the audience's need for useful information and meaningful perspective.

"Now, with the freedom of early retirement, I'm able to meet those same needs with added flexibility as an independent consultant."
 

Michael Turney initially came to Northern Kentucky University as an assistant professor in 1972 when the Highland Heights campus opened. At that time it was called Northern Kentucky State College, had only two permanent buildings, and enrolled 3,000 students. After five frenetic years of non-stop institutional growth, four years as coordinator of the Communication Division of what was then the Department of Fine Arts & Communication, and promotion to tenured associate professor, Turney took a time-out. Choosing to heed Horace Greeley's timeless advice while he was still young, he packed his bags, sold his house, and headed west.

Ten years and what seemed like two lifetimes later, he returned to NKU as chair of the Communication Department. It was not only a homecoming to NKU and to Kentucky, but to academic life. For six of the ten years he was gone, he had been out of academe, first as a museum consultant and then as a government public information officer. In the years after his return both Turney and the Communication Department grew and matured.

In 1992, after his father's death and following particularly dramatic growth spurts in faculty size and student enrollment, he opted to give up academic administration. He stepped down from chairing the Communication Department and eagerly returned to full-time teaching, the activity that had initially drawn him into academic life.

Five years later, during the summer of 1997 in the laundromat of a New Mexico campground, he received a tantalizing e-mail from the dean of professional studies. Its hint of untold wealth and power was so irresistible that Turney was enticed out of the classroom and into a one-year apppointment as interim chair of NKU's Department of Allied Health, Human Services and Social Work. It was an exciting and fascinating year in a lovely and spacious office, but his visions of wealth and power proved to be illusory. And, to top it all off, the dean who had first painted those rosy pictures packed up and moved south to become a provost. Wiser, but no richer, Turney was delighted to return to full-time teaching in the Communication Department.

Among the classes he most frequently and most recently taught were:

Audiovisual Production	Feature Writing
Communication Internships	Law of Mass Communication
Contemporary Mass Media	Principles of Public Relations

January 2004 saw Turney move into a temporary administrative position of unspecified duration in the Office of the Associate Provost for Outreach and Dean of Graduate Studies. As executive assistant for outreach and graduate studies he handled a variety of special projects, assisted in directing marketing and promotion efforts, and functioned as an in-house communication consultant for the university's outreach programs and many of its special institutes and centers. His accomplishments included:

• being NKU's liaison to the Kentucky Secretary of State to plan and facilitate the first statewide Kentucky Summit on Civic Literacy;
• developing a strategic plan for identifying and introducing new graduate programs over the next 5-10 years;
• coordinating NKU's University/Community Partnership Grant Program and awarding $200,000 a year to community assistance projects directed by NKU faculty members;
• writing the university's first three Annual Reports on Outreach and Civic Engagement; and
• supporting NKU's participation as one of four national demonstration sites for the American Association of State Colleges and University's Making Place Matter Project.

Although he was scheduled to return to full-time teaching in fall 2006, at the last minute, Turney let himself be talked into accepting another temporary administrative assignment. He was to be the faculty coordinator for the university's decennial re-accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It was a massive task made more overwhelming by the near-universal complacency of the university. Since NKU had been successfully re-accredited in the past, most faculty and administrators assumed its re-accreditation would essentially be automatic and saw no need to be concerned about the new standards SACS had established since NKU's last re-accreditation. So, after an incredibly frustrating year with no mandate, inadequate resources, no authority to implement needed changes, and facing the prospect of worse to come, Turney opted for early retirement and left NKU on Halloween 2007.

In addition to 26 years on the NKU faculty, Turney administered academic programs and taught at the University of Iowa School of Journalism, Clarke College (Dubuque), and Loras College (Dubuque). He also guest lectured at Iowa State University, Drake University, Xavier University (Cincinnati), Miami University (Ohio), and Grand View College (Des Moines).

 
Outside of academia, Turney's greatest challenge was being director of communication for the state of Iowa's Department of Human Services during the mid-1980s. That five-year firestorm immersed him in record-setting farm foreclosures, major budget reductions, soaring Medicaid and Food Stamp usage, dramatic increases in the abuse of children and the elderly, prison disturbances, and a hostage situation in a mental health institution. It climaxed the year he helped the governor's office announce a down-sizing of state government that laid off 1,200 state workers and simultaneously had to cope with a scathing "60 Minutes" expose of a high-profile foster care case that took several troubling turns.

Over the years Turney has done communication consulting for dozens of schools, museums, and non-profit community service organizations throughout the Mid-West. His largest recent project was a study of publication dissemination for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) completed in 2000.

 
He currently serves on the board of directors of the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) as vice-president for professional development. He is also on the Accreditation Council of IABC's parent organization. He frequently helps teach workshops and does coaching of Cincinnati communicators who are preparing to take the IABC and PRSA professional accreditation exams.

Much of Turney's recent professional writing has been for his On-line Readings in Public Relations, a steadily evolving public relations "textbook" posted for free access on the Internet. His most recent presentations to professional organizations have focused on maintaining effective communication during crisis situations.
 

"Who says I can't play my Ballad of Amos Kendall at Tall Stacks?"
 
 

"Now do I look like an eighth floor administrator?"
 
 

"An internship is your bridge from the classroom to professional life."
 
 

"Who's defensive about decisions?"