When Dr. Adrienne O'Brien ponders her experiences as an educator and as a student, she has both pleasant memories and motivation for the future. "I have been going to school every Monday morning since I was five. As a student I loved school and that hasn't changed over the years on the other side of the desk," said O'Brien, who has worked as both a teacher and an administrator.
Currently a tenured professor of Communication Arts at the New York Institute of Technology, NYIT, O'Brien has been employed by the college for nearly three decades and was responsible for starting a number of new programs including a television news show that won an Emmy. She was honored recently by Long Island Business News as one of 50 top Long Island business women for the year 2001.
The Emmy-winning news broadcast, Long Island News Tonight, was started by O'Brien nearly two decades ago. It is the oldest, continuous-running local cable news program on Long Island and has served as a training ground for more than a thousand young journalists.
Student reporter Monique Brook, anchor Ken Eckhardt and production manager Gary Licker won an Emmy for their feature, "Co-stars and Roommates," about the lives of actors and actresses performing at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport. Their competition in the arts category included PBS/WLIW and The Metro Channel. It was also the first time the college's program was submitted to the academy.
"The excitement of being nominated was tremendous," said O'Brien. "We did not have the expectation to win." She recalled the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Science awards night in New York City and the thrill of winning. She found it heartwarming when members of the audience were asked, "How many of you out there started at Long Island News Tonight," and countless hands went up.
Among the well known media professionals who have gone through the program are News 12's Carol Silva and Lea Tyrell. O'Brien herself was recognized by the Long Island News Tonight alumni at a 2000 gala where she was named the Distinguished Honoree.
The concept of students learning the profession by actually reporting the news fits well with O'Brien's preferred approach to teaching. "All my degrees and studies of teaching and learning and my experiences as an instructional systems designer bring me to one conclusion that has been my philosophy of education: knowledge and skills are acquired by application, by using them. It's simple, it's active, it's personal, no one can do it for you. It's a process that we faculty only can guide. Only the learner can learn," she said.
"Undergrads and grad students apply their classroom and book knowledge and carry out their new assignments to put together the nightly program on a cable station that reaches more than three million households. That's the real learning process guided by news professionals," said O'Brien. "To the individual student reporter or camera person the product may seem the most important element that day or that term. True, the show is important, it has to be well done and professional, but its real importance is in generating the process that gets it done."
In addition to Long Island News Tonight, O'Brien has employed similar means to teach students advertising and public relations. "If you have a product they're putting out, students are highly motivated," she said.
NuVision is a student-staffed public relations agency that assists Long Island not-for-profit groups. Those helped by the students and O'Brien's pro-bono work include Planting Fields, the Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Long Island, Project Literacy Outreach, the Long Island Maritime Museum, Friends of the Arts College, Coalition for Child Care and Cabrini College.
The outcome of the community-centered work on Long Island is often recognized in national competitions. A brochure and videos for both the museum and the college, created by NuVision for the "Where Are the Women? Project" , each won a national Award of Distinction from the "Communicator."
An advertising agency with a similar concept was also started at NYIT. It was while she was dean of the School of Media and Arts that O'Brien brought together Long Island advertising professionals and conducted a survey of the skills needed to be successful in the field. "The results of that not only designed the degree but were published," said O'Brien, referring to the bachelor's degree program offered at the school's Central Islip and Manhattan campuses. "In a way it's parallel to Long Island News Tonight," she said.
At NYIT, O'Brien has served as an administrator and a teacher. She was dean of the School of Media and Arts for more than a decade and during her leadership degree programs and emphasized strong faculty commitment to teaching, scholarship and community service. She currently teaches media research, communication theory and public relations and is the director of the public relations workshop, NuVision.
O'Brien has enjoyed her professional life both as an educator and an administrator. "I loved the power of administration in designing new programs and hiring faculty," she said, adding, "I love the feedback of teaching every day. The tremendous advantage of teaching is the interaction with youth. That's my reward for being involved."
She also toyed with the idea of a career in production. "I did find I could not produce toothpaste commercials. I found there wasn't the same reward as there was in teaching. I enjoyed the performance, being in the classroom. It won out," said O'Brien.
While her attraction to production and teaching conflicted for a while, O'Brien has been fortunate to be able to combine the two. She gets great satisfaction from learning about technology. In fact, she taught on of the first on-line course at NYIT.
"The luxury of learning is that other part of teaching that I find exhilarating," said O'Brien, who believes she passes along the excitement to her students. "It allows me to maintain production skills in a media world that is changing."
A great deal has changed since O'Brien began her career at NYIT 28 years ago when the "educational framework of communications exploded with the digital revolution. "My colleagues and I had to rethink the courses, the equipment, the degrees, and everything else to prepare young people with the skills and mind set needed to be successful in the digital media world. And now, as a faculty member I have the best of it. I get to work with digital media and to interact with the young minds in the classroom."
A leader in the field of instructional systems design, O'Brien has held national office in the Instructional Technology Division of the American Society for Training and Development. She also has a long list of credits for print and multimedia productions and continues to produce instructional material and promotional communications. She is a specialist in digital video, on-line editing and interested in the integration of these images and sound on the internet. Earlier this year O'Brien presented a post graduate course on media and culture at the Instituto Superior de Comunicacao Empresarial in Lisbon, Portugal.
While her resume is packed with exciting and innovative initiatives and experience, what O'Brien considers to be her most valued achievement is seemingly simple. "Being happy is a great accomplishment. Loving to get up in the morning and to meet the day with enthusiasm and energy, I think, is a great accomplishment," she said.
O'Brien holds a baccalaureate in history from Hunter College where she was president of the student body and selected for Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities. She earned two Master of Arts degrees from Villanova University, one in Political Science and another in Educational Administration and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. In addition, O'Brien has done post graduate studies at Loyola University in chemistry and biology and has taken courses in telecommunications at the University of Southern California and Temple University.
She is an active member of the community and has served for 10 years on the board of directors of Women on the Job. The Long Island based educational and advocacy organization celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2001.
The Where are the Women? Project was started by the group to link business, civic, professional and academic leaders to search for solutions to the issue of women not serving in great numbers on boards or in top management positions. "The project focuses on raising awareness and initiating change within the Long Island business community by creating opportunities for increased representation of women as corporate officers and directors," writes O'Brien in an article for "LIWomen.com."
O'Brien has also seen more women move into communications at NYIT since she began there, describing the ratios as moving from nine to one to about 50/50 today. "I grew up and became a professional in the academic area without ever thinking about being a feminist," she said."
Her love for education and desire to help others led her back to her alma mater in the 1970s where she became a charter board member. Since that time, Mother Cabrini High School, became a two-time recipient of the White House School of Excellence Award.
She was recently added to the Girl Scouts of Nassau County Board of Trustees and her future plans include increasing her involvement with the group. "I'm on a crusade to have every Long Island woman become a member of the Girl Scouts. I want to get out the word that the image of camping and cookies is way off. The Girl Scouts are a forward looking, thinking, acting organization whose diverse programs bring out each girl's potential and leadership skills, developing her into tomorrow's confident, successful young woman," she explains.
O'Brien has fond memories of her childhood including a mother who she describes as "strong" and as an "early feminist." "Her unconditional love and self confidence simply produced confident offspring de facto," she said.
The enthusiastic educator grew up in the city with two brothers until she was ten and her sister was born. A "tomboy," O'Brien was often the only girl in the group when she would head to a park on Riverside Drive to play baseball. "I believe my ideas of fairness, respect for competence and a get over it attitude towards minor upsets were reinforced in early games and play with boys on city streets," she said.
"My tomboy world infiltrated my all-girl private school days. Although I wore the disguises of Mary-Janes, white gloves and funny hats as required when on feminine display, the competitive spirit and leadership skills of the "play" world guided my early academic and social life," said O'Brien.
She believes her childhood played a part in her success as an educator and businesswoman. "It is clear to me that my early experiences excelling among boys influenced my understanding that I could be whatever I wanted to be," she said, adding that her mother and father's encouragement for clear thinking and skilled conversation was also a big help.
The guidance of her strong mother was a great asset. "When I said something about being a nurse, she would say, ÔWhy would you do that?', become a doctor, of course." Her father also influenced her love for the camera and producing as she remembers him constantly filming members with an eight millimeter camera.
O'Brien is married to Dr. David G. Salten, consultant to the president of Hofstra University and former Nassau IDA chairman. The couple resides in Port Washington along with their two champion Maine Coon cats. O'Brien is an avid tennis player.
