Beth Grobman worked in practically every branch of mass media since her graduation from Pitzer College in Claremont. She has worked in newsrooms, colleges and even Hollywood. Now Grobman serves as the head of the Journalism department at De Anza College, and teaches journalism classes and advises La Voz Weekly staff and editors.

Grobman has lived all across the United States. She was born in Florida, raised in Colorado and moved to California for college. She then relocated to Eugene, Oregon and landed a job at the Oregon Daily Emerald, then at the Valley News as a graphic artist, features writer and photographer.

From there Grobman pursued her master’s degree in communications with an emphasis in biomedical communication at St. Louis University in Missouri. One of Grobman’s projects was to create videos showing medical students how to interact with patients.

“Research indicated that patients were more likely to sue doctors for malpractice whom they were not comfortable with or trusting of,” Grobman said. Her research revealed that most medical students were not comfortable talking to patients, especially about sensitive topics, so teaching them communication skills was imperative for their success.

Grobman worked in Hollywood before moving to Oregon. She networked with friends from college, who still lived there, to get tips for jobs. “Getting a job in Hollywood requires connections,” she said. “A friend of mine helped get me a job at NFB Newstelevision, the first all-news station in L.A., as a floor director and production assistant.”

When the station closed down, Grobman worked as a production assistant for different independent film companies. “I loved the work, but I wanted the security of a steady paycheck,” she said. Another drawback was that “the industry was really fast-paced, intense and cut-throat, and I was too young and naive to be in it.”

Grobman was working at Mission College as a media producer and instructional designer when she was hired hired as the coordinator for De Anza’s Distance Learning Center in 1987. “The classes used to be offered primarily on TV through pre-recorded videos; one of my jobs was to institute the first online classes and the live telecast lectures.”

In 1998, Grobman transferred to the newly reinstated journalism department, which had been shut down for about five years. She reorganized the department and restarted La Voz as a weekly paper produced for students by students.

Grobman has a hands-on attitude toward teaching. “I try to teach students to be creative problem solvers and not to be afraid of technology. I don’t like lecture-based classes, I like collaborative learning with small groups and kinesthetic props,” Grobman said.

When Grobman has extra time, she likes to spend it with her 20-year-old son, as well as on Facebook, going to concerts and playing with two dogs she rescued, a cocker spaniel, Sugar, and a bijon, Jazz. She does “artistic quilting that is not based on patterns. I have a general idea of what I want to do and then I start putting it together, I like [to see it] come together by itself, I don’t plan every detail.”

She considers herself a fan of the Grateful Dead. “Not just because I love their music, but because of the values I associate with them and the culture: peace, tolerance, socialism,” Grobman said.

Brad Kava, a fellow journalism instructor at De Anza, has worked with Grobman for five years. “[She] is the one I turn to about teaching and journalism, whenever I have a question, she is really fair and balanced. She is the journalism department, she created a structure that kept it going,” Kava said.

“I steal a lot of her ideas when I teach,” he said. “So she is passing on a whole style of teaching.”