A COM Love Story Comes Full Circle
Ryan and Carla Kath met as grad students in 2003 and returned to teach two decades later
Ryan and Carla Kath met as graduate students in COM’s broadcast journalism program in fall 2003. They were taking a voice workshop, learning to speak to the camera in a neutral tone. The teacher zeroed in on the man from Minnesota who was drawing out his O’s and the woman speaking with a Mississippi twang. “We just laughed at ourselves and how the teacher kept calling on us,” says Ryan (’05).
The couple began dating, but tried to keep it a secret from their classmates. “Finally, there was a point in the spring semester where we told everyone,” Ryan says. “And everyone was like, ‘Oh, yeah, we knew that weeks ago.’” After graduation in 2005, they married in a ceremony at Marsh Chapel.
The Kaths moved to Minnesota where Ryan was a reporter at the NBC affiliate while Carla (’05) switched careers, going into public relations and corporate communication. The couple moved to Kansas City, Mo., where Ryan became an investigative reporter at KSHB, and Carla worked in communications at the American Cancer Society and freelanced for The Kansas City Star. They had two children and, in 2015, returned to Boston. Ryan worked at WBZ-TV as an investigative reporter before assuming his current role at NBC Boston. Carla recently joined Boston Globe Media as director of communications after several years working in communications for health and human service organizations.
Ryan and Carla in October 2004.
The Kaths married in June 2005.
Now, 20 years after graduating, they’re both lecturers at COM—Carla in corporate communication and Ryan in in-depth reporting.
The Kaths spoke with COMtalk about their college experiences and the journey that brought them back to COM.
Q&A
Ryan and Carla Kath
COMtalk: Is there a student project that you remember working on together?
Ryan Kath: The most distinct memory I have is, for our final newsroom class of the spring semester, we ended up being picked as the anchors of that newscast. That kind of tied a bow around the semester. We have a snippet of that—I was looking at it the other day.
Carla Kath: I came home the other night and Ryan was showing that to the kids. It’s a horrifying thing. It’s a horrifying thing, but it is fun to reminisce about such a positive time at BU and to share that with them. We’re crossing our fingers for future Terriers!
COMtalk: Where did you go after BU?
Carla Kath: We both got jobs in television newsrooms. I was in Jackson, Miss., Ryan was in Rochester, Minn. We tried dating long distance for a short time, but we knew that we wanted to get married at some point. Then, we came back to Boston for a visit.
Ryan Kath: We visited Boston for a big student program, and the next night, I took Carla out for dinner and ended up proposing to her. I think she was pretty surprised, but she said “yes” and we got to celebrate with a lot of our friends from BU after that. Some faculty even came to our wedding.
COMtalk: What were the most important lessons you learned at COM?
Carla Kath: Writing. Writing is everything. Learning to write for different platforms has helped tremendously over the course of my career. There are really strong writers in my classroom right now. I’m amazed with the content that they are producing and with the conversations that we’re able to have because they already have a solid writing foundation
Ryan Kath: BU gave me an amazing structural foundation for how to pursue stories and make sure that they’re accurate and they’re fair.
COMtalk: How did you both end up teaching at COM?
Ryan Kath: I would occasionally be at COM as a guest speaker and in 2018 I got into adjunct teaching. I did that for six years, through the pandemic, teaching public speaking. This semester, I got my first opportunity to do a journalism course, in-depth reporting.
Carla Kath: The same thing happened for me. I participated in panels and had been speaking to classes at BU. I was looking to teach, but when opportunities came up, they never worked with my current schedule. This year, when COM reached out about the corporate communication course, I was so happy that it worked out.
COMtalk: What stood out to you as you stepped into these classrooms where you’d been students 20 years ago?
Ryan Kath: Some of the amenities have really improved. The [butv10] studio looks amazing now, with the renovation they did there. And then, I think, the eagerness of the students who just want to learn. My journalism students are gobbling everything up that we can pass along to them.
Carla Kath: I have 27 undergrads, mostly juniors and seniors, who I knew had some experience in public relations and communications. But what I was most surprised about is the quality of students and how engaged they are in learning. We are already discussing future career paths.
COMtalk: Is there a message that Professor Kath would tell your younger self 20 years ago?
Carla Kath: I would say, “Maintain those connections that you made at COM.” We know people who are living in probably all 50 states, who have careers in different areas of communications, and we’ve been able to network, share stories and help other people get jobs.
Ryan Kath: I would say that taking risks and making mistakes is part of the process of becoming a better reporter. And have people that can act as mentors for you—like I had a photographer that I worked with who’d been at the station for almost 50 years. Find the people in your office or in your newsroom that have that institutional knowledge and can pass it along to you—and listen to them.
COMtalk: How do you bring your own careers into the classroom?
Carla Kath: I’m trying to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world. For example, my entire class went to a political event hosted by the Boston Globe, and we’re looking at what elements of corporate communication went into the production of that event. And we’ve had guest speakers who specialize in different areas of corporate communication visit the class to share their experience.
Ryan Kath: My class is working on a large reporting project about law enforcement accountability that will be published and aired on NBC Boston. And we’re taking a field trip to the station so they can see a contemporary newsroom in action. That’s what I think we can give—real-world insight.
This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
