B. Knepper Communications

Reprinted with permission from CSU Dominguez Hills
Dateline Dominguez Hills
1/30/2007, www.csudh.edu

by Joanie Harmon-Whetmore

When Brenda Knepper was researching the history of the Protestant Reformation for a humanities course, she found out that an ancestor, Wilhelm Knepper, who arrived in the American colonies in 1729, had been imprisoned for four years in Germany for embracing a radical pietist faith, at a time when only the Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic churches were recognized by the government. A member of a Gregorian chant choir, she was also intrigued by the fact that Wilhelm Knepper had penned 400 hymns, many of which were published in both Germany and the colonies.

“I love to learn from history,” says Knepper, who has joined the California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) University Advancement staff as director of university and development communications.

Knepper, who is completing her master’s degree in humanities at CSUDH, recognizes the University’s mission and its history of serving an urban community in the wake of the Watts riots of 1965, as communications tools that encourage the public to take another look at the “hidden jewel” of the South Bay.

“We have students here who are first in their family to go to college, and on the other end, students who come from more affluent and educated families,” she points out. “Attracting students locally into the University is a way of raising up the whole community, and is tied to the roots of how Dominguez Hills was founded.”

Knepper and her 18-year-old son have had their own experience with the effects of a lack of direction or education in the lives of young people, when a close friend of her son’s was randomly killed in a gang-related drive-by shooting on Halloween of last year.

“This young man’s death happened around the time that I was interviewing for this job,” Knepper remembers. “The idea that education is a way to keep kids off the street, to prepare them for careers, and help them to be better equipped for life, really motivates me. I see the connections between why the University was established here, and what it provides to the community now. It’s a beacon for this area, and offers a way for people to improve the quality of their lives.”

Knepper’s extensive marketing experience in higher education includes her most recent position as creative director at the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor, where she was responsible for the CSU’s institutional image and development of internal and external communications. While at the Chancellor’s Office, Knepper developed a comprehensive branding program for systemwide communications, and managed the redesign of the CSU Internet and Office of the Chancellor intranet sites. She also provided creative direction for several award-winning communications programs, including the CSU “How to Get to College” poster campaign and the CalStateTEACH branding program. Prior to her years at the Office of the Chancellor, Knepper managed the publications department at CSU Fullerton’s Extended Education and has over 20 years of experience in design and communications.

Knepper’s interdisciplinary educational experience is aligned with her approach to her new job of telling the local community and beyond about Dominguez Hills.

“Being a communicator is an interdisciplinary endeavor,” she says. “We hear stories from a variety of people about a broad range of programs or events at Dominguez Hills, however, when funneled through University Communications to various media outlets, they tell one recurring story about the rich resources at this campus.”

As a returning student, Knepper decided to pursue her master’s degree in humanities at CSUDH when she found out that the fine arts program she originally sought out at another campus was closed, and that the program here was a good fit with her undergraduate work and her broad interests. She was impressed by “the quality of the program, and its high standards. I love the small classes and the diversity of the students and faculty. A recent WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) report said that Dominguez Hills was where other universities are going to need to be in terms of diversity in the next 15 or 20 years. We’re there now.”