Things Allred learned at AU have helped get the Richland Source up and running

While Jay Allred said he can’t tie his experience at Ashland University directly to starting the Richland Source in 2013, the local online news company’s commitment to listening to all points of view, being fair and rigorous and working to keep the best interests of the communities it covers at the center of its work lines up with what he learned at AU.

What he learned at AU also lines up with many other aspects of the Richland Source CEO’s life.

“Of course, I learned a great deal in my classes at AU,” said the 1994 graduate. “But I think the most important thing I learned came from the experience of being a non-traditional commuter student who was paying his own way.”

Allred had completed the first two years of his undergrad studies on the East Coast before taking a couple of years off to work and move to Ohio to be closer to family.

He said he chose AU to complete his bachelor’s degree in history, concentrating on post-Civil War history, because it offered a rigorous liberal arts education and allowed him to commute to class from Mansfield where he lived and worked.

“Attending AU as an off-campus commuter taught me that people (including me) are capable of a lot more than maybe we think we are at first,” he said. “I learned to prioritize what was important really quickly and I learned – probably for the first time – the real financial value of an education. I remember knowing exactly what every hour in every class was costing me. It made me a more serious student, and I think it matured me in a way that would’ve taken much longer otherwise.”

The importance of building relationships was another thing Allred learned during his experience at the university.

As a commuter student, he said the relationships he built with his professors were very important to him.

History Professor Duncan Jamieson, Ph.D, became a significant mentor to him.

“I loved history and writing, and Dr. Jamison saw that, I think, and he wasn’t afraid to push me,” Allred said. “He encouraged me to really interrogate my ideas and prodded me to think beyond my own experiences and take into account the history of other peoples and cultures."

Jamieson said he enjoyed teaching Allred, whom he described as a bright, outgoing student who was open-minded, thoughtful and never combative.

“He was willing to expand on comments made by me or other students in the class, enlivening discussions,” Jamieson said. “He argued his points well but would concede to other thoughts even when they disagreed with his thoughts.”

That attitude has served Allred well in leading the Richland Source staff that includes a group of 10 professional journalists, including two AU alumna (Allison Montgomery and Katie Foster).

“We have been unconventionally courageous since we launched the company,” he said. “Journalism is a field where traditional courage involves holding powerful people to account and giving voices to the voiceless. This kind of courage is critical to good journalism. But – especially on a local level – if all you do is look for where the powerful are misbehaving, you are missing the full story of what a community is and what it can be.

“I’m really proud of how our team has become a national leader in doing journalism in this way,” he added.

With his dad being in the newspaper industry, Allred grew up around journalism, which also led to him spending time in several states. He was born in Montana and attended high school in Texas.

“Safe to say it’s in my blood,” he said about journalism.

Learning about the history of organized crime may have been the best thing he learned at Ashland University, though, because it led to meeting and falling in love with his wife, Amy Lawson.

“We were both history majors and met in Dr. Ferroni's History of Organized Crime class in the spring of 1993, which was the year Amy graduated,” he said. “For that reason alone, it’s hard to imagine my life without Ashland University.”