Geri Alumit Zeldes

Geri Alumit Zeldes, Ph.D. is a tenured Professor in MSU’s School of Journalism and serves as ComArtSci’s Faculty Excellence Advocate who leads the college’s Inclusiveness Committee, helps recruit and retain staff and faculty and tries – tries to move the needle of awesome-ness in the building.

Zeldes doubles as an academic and practitioner, finding some success. She has a dozen best paper awards from international communication associations and 100+ honors and screenings for her documentary films and other creative scholarship that include the Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for coverage of social justice issues from the Asian American Journalists Association, Edward R. Murrow and Unity awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, two national Best of Festival Awards from the Broadcast Education Association, Top 25 Public Vote recognition for an exhibit in ArtPrize, three regional Emmys ®, and a handful of awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Michigan Association of Broadcasters and Michigan Associated Press Editors’ Association awards.

She was also invited to speak at two Tedx events and featured for her social justice scholarship on MSU’s “Spartans Will” campaign.

In October 2017, the Filipina Women’s Network recognized her with a “100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World Award” in the category Innovator and Thought Leader.

In May 2018, she was named on the Diversity Champion Honor Roll by the Race Relations & Diversity Task force in Birmingham, Mich., a suburb of Detroit.

Zeldes lives in another suburb of Detroit where she spends her evenings shuttling her three children to their travel sports practices while her fourth child plays on an iPad, buckled to the booster chair.

During her summers, Zeldes works on her documentary films. Works in progress: “The Rap on Flint,” “Sh*t Saves the World,” and “Flint Med.” Late, late at night, she writes grant proposals for small- and mid-sized grants that she hopes will support her documentaries as well as the work of her creative teams.