Skip to main content
Apply Request Info

Helen Fallon, M.A.

Professor Emeritus

Pictured is Helen Fallon. Submitted photo.

Contact Information

Education

  • M.A., Communications, Duquesne University
  • B.A., Journalism and Mass Communication, Point Park University

Courses Taught

  • Feature Writing
  • Journalistic Writing and Editing
  • International Media
  • City-University Life
  • Survey of Mass Communication

Background

Helen Fallon, professor emeritus and former director of Point Park's Honors Program, has taught and served as an administrator at Point Park University since 1986. She was chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication from 1999 to 2008 and was the acting dean of the School of Communication from 2008 to 2009. She then became director of the Honors Program.

Under Fallon's leadership, the School of Communication began annual student trips to Washington, D.C., and a different foreign country each year to focus on national and international media as well as broaden travel experiences for students. Past trips have included Germany, Paris, Italy, London, Toronto, Dublin and Prague.

Fallon remains an active journalist, working every Friday as a copy editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she's been gathering real-world materials for her classes since 1990. Earlier in her career, Fallon worked as a reporter, copy editor and editor for several papers in the Pittsburgh area for six years, and did public relations for a university and a community hospital for five years.

Fallon is involved in journalism education beyond Point Park, working with high school students by teaching apprenticeships for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit's gifted and talented program and visiting area high schools to talk with journalism and communication classes. She has been an active member and leader in the Pennsylvania School Press Association and has made presentations with the Journalism Education Association at its national conferences as well.

From 2008 to 2021, Fallon and her family, daughter Amy and son Stephen, established a travel fund at Point Park in memory of their late husband and father, John E. Fallon Jr. The fund helped School of Communication and Honors Program students in need travel nationally and abroad to complement their Point Park education.

Professional Memberships

  • Women's Press Club of Pittsburgh, board member
  • Northeast Regional Honors Council, president
  • Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, 2nd vice president
  • Society of Professional Journalists
  • Pennsylvania Scholastic Press Association, past board member
  • Journalism Education Association
  • Pennsylvania's Tuition Account Plan, past board member
  • National Collegiate Honors Council
  • Northeast Regional Honors Council
  • The Consortium for Public Education, grant review committee
  • Jefferson Regional Foundation, member

Advising/Workshops

  • Honors Student Organization, Point Park University
  • High School Workshops (fundraising, updating, sponsor award contest with the Post-Gazette for outstanding high school newspapers and journalism students), Point Park University
  • Allegheny Intermediate Unit gifted and talented apprenticeships - journalistic writing and reporting and leadership

Selected Presentations

  • Pennsylvania School Press Association, state conferences, November 2008-2011
  • Journalism Education Association national conferences, November 2008-2010

Selected Award

  • Service to Journalism Award, Western Pennsylvania Press Club, 2005

Point Park Features