Dr. Toni Albertson

Biography

Toni Albertson is an arts and entertainment editor, publicist, and feature writer who entered academia in 2004 with a focus on innovating college newsrooms. In 2006, Albertson worked at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, where she turned a troubled journalism program with low enrollment into an award-winning program recognized by Nieman Lab as one of the most daring, innovative college media outlets in the United States. In 2015, she led the student media staff to stop print publications, entering partnerships with Medium and Washington Post’s Arc Publishing, making the Mt. SAC journalism program a community college pilot program. Previously, Albertson taught journalism at Los Angeles Pierce College, Los Angeles City College, Oxnard College, and Moorpark College, restarting student media at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. She founded 'The Journalism Project', designed to rescue vulnerable student media. In 2022, she was honored with the College Media Association’s Dan Reimold Student Media Champion Award and received the California Journalism Education Coalition’s Journalism Educator of the Year Award, along with the College Media Association’s Distinguished Multimedia Adviser Award. Before entering academia, Albertson worked as a managing editor for an internationally distributed entertainment magazine owned by Time-Warner and was the owner of one of the largest entertainment public relations booking agencies in Hollywood. She has also worked as a daily feature writer for a Ventura County newspaper, a columnist for the Ventura County Reporter, and a radio host for 'Entertainment Report' on Gold Coast Broadcasting, besides freelancing for various arts and entertainment publications.

Research Interests