Robert Schwoch brings more than 30 years of experience in reporting, editing and political/advocacy communication to his dual roles as lecturer and academic advisor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. A graduate of SJMC, Robert founded a free-distribution all-sports weekly in Milwaukee before being hired at age 23 to the sports staff at The Milwaukee Journal, where he spent five years as a reporter before transitioning into political reporting. He later served for nine years as a communication assistant, policy analyst and chief of legislative staff in the Wisconsin State Legislature, becoming one of a small handful of people – perhaps the only person – to have headed both Democratic and Republican legislative staffs at the State Capitol. After leaving the Legislature, he served as Director of Public Affairs at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, where he oversaw public communication and was the state’s sole registered lobbyist for HIV/AIDS issues before striking out on his own as a freelance writer and political communication consultant.
Robert is the SJMC’s primary academic advisor for undergraduates. He teaches courses in media strategy, sports communication and literary journalism, and serves on the faculty’s undergraduate curriculum and admission committees. Outside SJMC, Robert enjoys literature, music, cooking, bicycling and sports fandom, pursuits inherited in part from the maternal side of his family in the Italian region of Umbria. He is co-founder, writer and podcaster at the soccer blog I Wish I Was A Geordie, devoted to the English club Newcastle United. Robert and husband Hal are part-time Madisonians but make their main residence in Milwaukee.