Marie Barnas has earned two M.F.A. degrees, first in Film Production from Ohio University and then in Creative Writing from Georgia College and State University. She teaches courses in video and film production and is the Department of Media Arts Distance and Online Education Coordinator. Her professional interests include online education, study abroad, and documentary production. Her projects have won numerous domestic and international awards including Emmy, Telly, Cindy, and Worldfest Houston and have earned over 50 awards and honors at various film festivals, performances, and exhibitions worldwide.

In 2014-15 she was awarded fellowships by The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, The International Radio and Television Society, and The National Association of Television Producers and Executives. She was awarded a second IRTS fellowship in 2018, and in 2022 she was chosen as a Japan Studies Institute Fellow by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. She has taught both on ground and online classes in Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee and abroad in Lithuania and Bulgaria for over two decades. She has completed classes and obtained over a dozen licenses and certifications in online teaching and learning from Quality Matters, The Learning Resources Network, The Online Learning Consortium, and The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Nashville/Midsouth Chapter and The Telly Council. She has given over 20 academic presentations in multiple discipline specific conferences and has performed service to the university and public for over 15 years.

Her publications include journal articles published in The International Journal of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences and The Journal of Media Education, and she has co-authored three textbooks, Broadcast News Writing, Reporting, and Producing, Radio in the Movies, and Scripting Media. Since 2017, she has twice been an MTSU MT-IGO recipient, has solely raised over $156,000 in MTSU Department of Media Arts departmental funds for online instruction and enhancement, and has helped raise over $80,000 for other MTSU Department of Media Arts departmental support initiatives.

In 2021-22 she raised over $150,000 for her latest film The Cost of Caring. In her spare time she enjoys spoiling her two fur babies, Roxy Roo and Boris Boo. When she isn’t traveling to distant lands, she also co-produces the award winning podcast Voca Vacay with her husband and colleague Frank Barnas, Ed.S., M.F.A. She is a native of South Charleston, West Virginia and worked in the film industry in Atlanta, GA from 2004-2011.

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