Catherine Mezera

Catherine Mezera is a Teaching Associate Professor at the WVU College of Creative Arts and Media. She teaches courses in advertising, copywriting, and creative strategy for the advertising and public relations program as well as the undergraduate integrated marketing communications online major.  

Volunteering as a WVU Project 168 Coach, she mentors students from across the University. She served as a Faculty Associate for the WVU Teaching and Learning Commons (TLC) from 2017 – 2022 and successfully managed a faculty learning community focused on best teaching practices. She is a nationwide VoiceThread Certified Educator and won the Reed College of Media Outstanding Teaching Award in 2019 - 2020.

Mezera serves as the Communications Advisor for the WVU EcoCAR Team that includes a collaborative cross-disciplinary project with students from the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, Chambers College of Business and Economics, College of Creative Arts and Media and WVU Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The EcoCAR competitions are hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series. The current competition is the EcoCAR EV Challenge (2022-2026).  She also contributed to the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge (2018-2022).

Her professional work experience includes a marketing communications director for a global technology manufacturer, where she was responsible for corporate branding, campaign budgeting, and publicity and promotional outreach. She also has media industry experience working in creative strategy and graphic design. Additionally, she has senior project management experience working with U.S. Department of Energy funded projects, in addition to grant writing, curriculum development for technical audiences and facilitating corporate training programs.

Mezera earned both of her degrees from WVU — an undergraduate degree in advertising and a master's degree in journalism. Her graduate thesis and research focused on the effectiveness of relationship marketing and the psychology of loyalty programs as part of integrated marketing campaigns.