The ability to use reason, communicate, and listen offer worth beyond measure in one’s personal life, to say nothing of the professional value of those skills.
Mark Haslett News Director, Adjunct Instructor
- Adjunct
- Alum
- Staff
Marketing and Communications
Mark Haslett has served at KETR since 2013. Since then, the station’s news operation has enjoyed an increase in listener engagement and audience metrics, as well recognition in the Texas AP Broadcasters awards. Before coming to Northeast Texas, Haslett worked for High Plains Public Radio in Amarillo, where he worked as News Director and later as Director of Programming. His work has been broadcast on KERA, KCUR and other public radio stations, as well as the NPR Newscast. Haslett has also worked as an editor and reporter in both news and sports at newspapers in the Southwest and Midwest. Haslett developed a passion for radio as a youth, when he helped his father, a program host at (now-defunct) WRBC-AM in Jackson, Miss.
Mark Haslett has been an adjunct instructor in the Writing Program since 2018, following completion of a master's degree in A&M-Commerce's celebrated Applied Linguistics program. Haslett's diverse background in the world of language and communication includes two decades as an editor in print and broadcast media, as well as an interlude teaching English in Mexico. A first-generation college student, Haslett appreciates the social and economic context of work in the academy, and seeks to help open doors for students of all backgrounds and experiences. Haslett lives in Commerce and is a big fan of public and community radio, baseball, football, and vintage Soviet music.
A Conversation with Mark
How do you help students?
Reading and writing well require a slowness of mind that our 21st-century world seems to discourage. I like to show students how to break down tasks and concepts into their component parts. The complex and the daunting become manageable if we identify a path ahead and then set to it. I like seeing students realize that they have the ability to do something they had thought beyond their abilities.
What is your teaching philosophy?
There is much talk about the practical worth of college these days, and I agree that a university education is one of only many paths to a fulfilled life. However, I remain a strong proponent of the value of a liberal arts education. The ability to use reason, communicate, and listen offer worth beyond measure in one's personal life, to say nothing of the professional value of those skills. There's also just the immense pleasure of going through life with a basic understanding of the arts, history, and the natural world. It enriches everything
Why did you choose your area of study and research?
Applied Linguistics, as a field, concerns itself with human communication, including the ways we communicate that go beyond the lexical. By systemizing the study of speech, Applied Linguistics creates the vocabulary necessary to teach, learn and discuss those aspects of spoken language that most of us understand, but can't articulate. This discourse leads to a world of discovery of one's own language and that of others.
Educational Background:
- M.A. Applied Linguistics, Texas A&M University-Commerce
- B.A. English, Tufts University