UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Throughout his career, Luis Almeida, an associate professor of mass communications at Claflin University and a doctoral graduate of the Penn State College of Education, has been driven by a desire to help students from disenfranchised backgrounds and of color to succeed by taking advantage of modern technology.
In recognition of his efforts, Almeida was named the 2022 Outstanding Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Educator of the Year and was a nominee for the 2022 Outstanding Educator of the Year award under the social impact awards category of PRNEWS. He received his award at a gala at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City, Virginia, in April.
“It’s the award of my career,” said Almeida, who received a doctorate in instructional systems from the College of Education in 2008. “It has been a strength in my career to be known as the guy who understands how to create curriculum, understands technology and helps students apply that knowledge.”
Prior to his appointment at Claflin University, Almeida held tenured faculty positions in two universities, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Jackson State University. He also served as assistant professor at Waynesburg University from 2008 to 2010.
Almeida credits his education at Penn State with providing him with expertise in both the theoretical and practical aspects of instructional technology. When he started his postsecondary education, he said his goal was to work in media. However, after earning a bachelor’s degree in sports management and a master’s degree in communication education and technology from Slippery Rock University and Clarion University, respectively, he took a rather unconventional turn by enrolling in the Instructional Systems (now Learning, Design, and Technology) doctoral program in the Penn State College of Education, instead of pursuing graduate studies in communications at Kent State University in Ohio.
“Penn State has been a wonderful place for me,” he said. “What my professors taught me has really helped me at multiple institutions, especially the research treatments we produced for our research studies.”
Instructional systems design, according to Training Industry, “involves a systematic process for the assessment and development of training solutions, designed specifically for the purpose of formal training delivery.”
“I wanted to spend time producing content,” Almeida said. “I saw that mass communications (graduate) programs were very dated. A lot of the programs are very theoretical with media but don’t teach you the practice.”
Through graduate school and beyond, Almeida has focused his research on empowering students from disadvantaged backgrounds by giving them the tools to take control of their own learning experiences. While at Penn State, he worked with Kyle Peck, research fellow and professor emeritus of education, on a grant project in inner-city Philadelphia to help minoritized students acquire technological resources to help them succeed in the classroom.
“A lot of my work post-Penn State has been in the area of empowerment in allowing minoritized individuals to make decisions rather than imposing (a specific) mindset on them,” Almeida said. “The former philosophy of teaching was a direct application of the learnings I received from Alison Carr-Chellman, my doctoral adviser.”
Throughout his academic career, Almeida said, his compassion for students living in poverty has been a guiding force. That was one of his motivations for taking a faculty position at Jackson State University, an HBCU in Jackson, Mississippi, a predominantly Black city with “white flight” — the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse.
“I have always had a soft spot for minoritized students, the poor and the disenfranchised,” he said. “I have made a decision to be a help and a shoulder and a big brother that a lot of the kids need to have.”
Almeida said he is particularly proud of two achievements that he felt had a meaningful impact on students. He recalled a project he led at Jackson State University in which his students created a digital marketing campaign that generated an increase in the Jackson Zoo membership by about nine times.
Additionally, Almeida said, in his role as chair of the Department of Mass Media Studies at Talledega College, he grew the department by 16% in a period of 10 months placing the department in the PRNEWS Education A-List Top 35 institutions for advancing careers in communications and public relations — during the COVID-19 pandemic, no less. He attributed his success to enabling students to “create classes that are much more applied in nature.”
“In the media field, I can’t imagine students solving problems without doing the work,” he said. “The education I got at Penn State and understanding the models of instructional design and instructional systems were absolutely imperative in being able to do this work.”
According to Almeida, minoritized students pursuing media careers now have more opportunities than ever thanks to digital technology. The smartphone, he said, has been used as an “empowering device for minoritized people to produce content, to voice their opinions in public and be heard.”
“The empowerment that exists in the new age of technology is impressive,” he said.
Almeida said he advises his students to “keep producing content and put your content out there.”
“Back in the day, we used to say, it’s not how much you know but who you know,” he said. “Now, it’s not how much you know but who knows you.”