Faculty
A blend of full-time faculty and talented visiting artists give the Murray Center its unique blend of expertise to share with students. Two seasoned professionals—one a documentary filmmaker and one a journalist—provide daily instruction that is the foundation of all the students learn. Additionally, visiting artists from documentary and related films make visits to campus to share their expertise with the students individually or in small-group settings.
Past visiting artists have included: Trey Borzillieri (EVIL GENIUS), Rachel Boynton (OUR BRAND IS CRISIS), Garrett Bradley (TIME), Lyric R. Cabral ((T)ERROR), Damon Davis and Sabaah Folayan (WHOSE STREETS?), Yance Ford (STRONG ISLAND), Penny Lane (HAIL SATAN?), Spike Lee (WHEN THE LEVEES BREAK), Ursula Liang (DOWN A DARK STAIRWELL), Bing Liu (MINDING THE GAP), David Osit (MAYOR), Sierra Pettengill (GRAVEN IMAGE), Jeff Reichert (AMERICAN FACTORY), RaMell Ross (HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING), Nailah Sims (WHO KILLED MALCOLM X?), Brett Story (THE HOTTEST AUGUST), Sandi Tan (SHIRKERS) and Lana Wilson (MISS AMERICANA)
Full-Time Faculty
Stacey Woelfel is a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and the director of the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the school. Woelfel has enjoyed more than 35 years of teaching and leading journalism students to become the best storytellers they can be. After managing the newsroom at Mizzou’s KOMU-TV for 28 years, in 2014 he became the architect of the Missouri School of Journalism’s innovative documentary center, writing its curriculum and building its infrastructure. As an FAA-certified commercial drone pilot, he also leads the school’s Drone Journalism program.
Woelfel has served the television news industry as national chairman of the Radio Television Digital News Association, national president of the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism and national trustee and regional president of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He currently serves the documentary world as a screener for Columbia’s beloved True/False Film Fest, a screener for the St. Louis International Film Festival and a member of the board of the Kansas City Film Fest International.
Woelfel is a winner of the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism, multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards and numerous regional and local awards. He has received the University of Missouri’s highest teaching honor, the William T. Kemper Fellowship, as well as the Mizzou Alumni Association’s Faculty-Alumni Award. Woelfel is the producer of more than 50 documentary shorts for students in his Documentary Journalism program. He was an associate producer on the documentary BISBEE ’17, which premiered at Sundance in 2018 and is serving as associate producer for the Robert Greene documentary PROCESSION. He is the author of Suspicious Signs: Effects of Newscaster Scripts, Symbols, and Actions on Audience Perceptions of News Organization Bias and penned a chapter in Silenced: International Journalists Expose Media Censorship and holds a doctorate in political science.
Stacey Woelfel, Professor and Director
Co-Founder of the Murray Center and Method M Films
Robert Greene is an associate professor and the Filmmaker-in-Chief for the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri. his latest film PROCESSION will premiere in 2021. Robert’s previous film BISBEE ’17 premiered at Sundance, aired on PBS’s P.O.V. and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2018 Gotham Awards. His films include the Sundance award winning KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE (2016), the Gotham Awards nominated ACTRESS (2014) and the Gotham Awards nominated KATI WITH AN I (2010). Robert has edited over a dozen features, including HER SMELL (2018), GOLDEN EXITS (2017), QUEEN OF EARTH (2015) and LISTEN UP PHILIP (2014) by Alex Ross Perry, Nick Berardini’s KILLING THEM SAFELY (2015), Amanda Rose Wilder’s award winning APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT (2014) and Charles Poekel’s Spirit Awards-nominated CHRISTMAS, AGAIN. He has served as a Sundance Edit Lab Advisor and was on the U.S. Documentary Jury for Sundance 2017. Robert writes about documentary for outlets such as Sight & Sound and Hyperallergic.
Greene was an inaugural Sundance Art of Nonfiction fellow in 2015 and is a three-time nominee for Best Director at the Cinema Eye Honors. The Independent named Greene one of its 10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2014 and he received the 2014 Vanguard Artist Award from the San Francisco DocFest. His first documentary, OWNING THE WEATHER, was screened at the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.