BEA Awards the 2025 Innovation in Teaching Award to Traci Easley Williams, University of Oklahoma
Washington, D.C. – The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) is pleased to announce that Traci Easley Williams from the University of Oklahoma is the recipient of BEA’s 2025 Innovation in Teaching Award.
Traci E. Williams is a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she brings over 20 years of higher education experience and more than 30 years of professional television and film industry work to her classroom. Her academic expertise encompasses film/television production, scriptwriting, visual media, and Africana studies.
Her Ph.D. research focuses on “Developing an Anti-Symbolic Annihilation Framework for Media Production Education,” which informs her innovative teaching approaches. Traci has pioneered a unique four-semester feature film production program that offers undergraduate students transformative experiential learning opportunities. Under her leadership, students have created professional feature-length films that have earned theatrical releases – an exceptional addition to their portfolios.
The program’s success stems from its collaborative nature, bringing together students from multiple disciplines across campus and creating meaningful connections between graduate and undergraduate participants. Traci advises multiple student organizations and has produced numerous award-winning student short films and scriptwriting projects.
Before joining OU, Traci served as a Senior Lecturer at Kent State University, where she also directed the Center of Pan-African Culture and mentored numerous student organizations. Her teaching journey also includes time at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Throughout her career, Traci has developed curriculum for courses that explore the imagery of people of color, feature film production, scriptwriting, and women in digital media. She’s authored two textbooks to support these courses. The books are interactive and provide students with engaging learning experiences. Her professional journey began early as a teenage talk show host on Fox, and expanded to include work on feature films, music videos, documentaries, and TV series.
The selection committee stated that her innovative pedagogical approach and unique teaching style set her apart as an exemplary media educator. Her ability to design and implement assignments that move beyond traditional lectures, like the Film Bible assignment, fosters a dynamic and participatory learning environment. They were also impressed by her hands-on, community-based project, Greenlight Creative Productions, that bridges academia and the media industry. The committee told Williams, “Your contributions reflect the very essence of this award—reshaping the educational landscape through ingenuity, engagement, and inspiration.”
BEA’s Innovation in Teaching Award (ITA) highlights an individual’s ability to showcase innovation in their pedagogy. Successful awardees stand out as media educators with unique and progressive teaching styles. Their assignments demonstrate that their courses are not just lecture based. The ITA will be awarded to Traci Easley Williams at BEA’s annual convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center during a ceremony and reception on the evening of Saturday, April 5.
About the BEA Convention – BEA’s annual convention is held in conjunction with NAB Show in Las Vegas every spring. BEA’s annual convention attracts 1,300 educators and students with 250 sessions, events, research panels, technology workshops and an exhibit hall, making BEA the largest conference partner of NAB Show.
About the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) – The Broadcast Education Association is the professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises. There are currently more than 2,500 individual and institutional members worldwide. Visit www.beaweb.org for more information.