Mark Poepsel worked as a general assignment television reporter for five years in Columbia, Missouri, in the Quad Cities (Iowa/Illinois), and in Tucson, Arizona. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Mizzou in 2002 with a focus on Broadcast Journalism. At the same time, he earned an English degree with a minor in Spanish. He earned a master’s degree in 2007 in Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona and took his Ph.D. in Journalism in 2011 back at the University of Missouri. In the spring of 2016, Mark took a team of students to third place in the Scripps International Innovators Cup – a media entrepreneurship pitch contest. He has also been a Scripps Fellow in Entrepreneurial Journalism as well as the Scripps Howard Visiting Professor in Social Media at DigitasLBi-Chicago.