MQ
Mary Kay Quinlan
Biography
Mary Kay Quinlan, Ph.D., is associate dean emerita at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she taught for 20 years. Quinlan also has taught or team-taught journalism, oral history, and American history classes at UNL, the University of Maryland, Nebraska Wesleyan, and Doane University. Before turning to the classroom, Quinlan had a 15-year career as a newspaper reporter, primarily as a Washington correspondent for the Omaha World-Herald and Gannett News Service, during which time she served as president of the National Press Club. She has been active in regional and national oral history activities for many years and has served as editor of the Oral History Association Newsletter since 1993. Quinlan’s oral history background includes conducting workshops, teaching, and co-authoring (with Barbara W. Sommer and others) several oral history publications, and she has presented at regional, national and international conferences. Quinlan earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and French from UNL, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in American studies, also from Maryland. In 2022 she was inducted into the Nebraska Women Journalists Hall of fame.