UNC Asheville’s Michael Gouge Named 2026 Faculty Champion for Strengthening Local Journalism

UNC Asheville announced that Michael E. Gouge, senior lecturer of Mass Communication and faculty adviser to the award-winning student news outlet The Blue Banner, was named a 2026 Faculty Champion by the Center for Community News (CCN) at the University of Vermont. The recognition highlights Gouge’s leadership in preparing the next generation of journalists while expanding access to reliable local news in Western North Carolina.

The CCN honor recognizes journalism educators who build and sustain university-led reporting programs that serve communities facing shrinking local news coverage. Gouge is among 150 journalism educators nationwide named 2026 Faculty Champions, a signal that national groups see university newsrooms as a practical response to gaps in local reporting.

Gouge, an alumnus of UNC Asheville with decades of experience in regional newspapers and magazines, teaches journalism courses in the Mass Communication Department and advises The Blue Banner. Under his guidance, UNC Asheville says students gain practical newsroom experience while providing meaningful coverage to the region. Through newsroom-style courses and faculty mentorship, students cover local government, education, environment, arts, and community issues that often receive limited media attention.

Richard Watts, director of the Center for Community News, framed the recognition in terms of both student success and community benefit: “At the core of all of these university-led student reporting programs are innovative and entrepreneurial faculty committed to student success,” and “These programs are a win-win for everyone: students receive high-impact experiences and communities benefit from more reliable news.” The CCN designation places Gouge and UNC Asheville in a wider movement that treats teaching laboratories as sources of durable civic reporting.

For Buncombe County residents, the award signals reinforced capacity to monitor local government, school systems, environmental challenges and cultural life. Student-powered reporting can plug persistent coverage gaps at city and county levels where commercial newsrooms have thinned. UNC Asheville frames journalism and media studies as central to its academic mission, and the CCN recognition underscores the university’s role in addressing the region’s news desert through hands-on, student-powered reporting.

The Center for Community News materials that accompany the Faculty Champion list include short biographies of several educators recognized alongside Gouge. Those bios read as follows.

Ted Geltner Position: Professor of journalism at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. Advising role: Adviser to The Spectator (the campus news organization). Professional journalism experience: Professional journalist for 17 years in Pennsylvania, California and Florida. Publications/author: Author of Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures: A Biography of Denis Johnson (University of Iowa Press, 2025), and also has authored biographies of Harry Crews and Jim Murray. Residence: Lives in Gainesville, Florida.

Twange Kasoma Position: Associate professor of digital journalism at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Pedagogical approach: Incorporates high impact practices such as service-learning, study abroad and research in her pedagogy. Career start: Kicked off her academic career at Emory & Henry University in Virginia where she established a journalism study abroad program to her native country, Zambia. Subsequent position: Next tenure at Radford University where she served as the faculty adviser for the student-run newspaper, The Tartan. Research interests: Journalism professionalism and climate literacy, among other areas. Education: Earned her doctorate from the University of Oregon.

Michael E. Gouge (UVM bio excerpt) Repeats that Michael E. Gouge is a senior lecturer at UNC Asheville; an experienced newspaper and magazine writer and editor; teaches journalism classes and advises The Blue Banner.

Carl Kenney Position: Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Ying Hu Position: Senior Lecturer, School of World Languages and Cultures, University of Vermont. Research interests: Examines instructional approaches that promote cognitive flexibility in advanced knowledge acquisition and application. Specific study interest: Studies the abilities learners need to navigate complex concepts in real-world and rapidly evolving contexts (such as those involved in foreign language communication). Teaching emphasis: Community-engaged learning, metacognitive awareness, and purposeful integration of technology and new media to support holistic and integrative learning experiences.

Kyle Hufford Position: Professor, Goshen College.

The CCN recognition does not, in the material released with the announcement, specify funding or direct resources tied to the designation. For readers, the practical takeaway is that UNC Asheville’s student newsroom work will have enhanced national recognition and that The Blue Banner’s reporting is likely to remain a local resource for coverage that otherwise gets little attention. Local leaders and residents can expect continued student reporting on government, schools and environment issues; follow-up reporting and interviews with university staff and students will better quantify how many stories and what impacts flow from this recognition.