Bryan Monroe Joins Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern as Visiting Professor

EVANSTON, Ill. --- October 12, 2009 ---Veteran newsroom leader and media commentator Bryan Monroe joins the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University as a visiting professor, the school announced today.

Monroe, the former Vice President and Editorial Director of Ebony & Jet magazines, Assistant Vice President/News at Knight Ridder and Deputy Managing Editor of the San Jose Mercury News, has been a contributor for CNN and provided live commentary during the recent coverage of Michael Jackson’s funeral in Los Angeles. He conducted the last major interview of Jackson for Ebony magazine and also landed the first interview of President Barack Obama just after he was elected in November, 2008.

In 2005, he helped lead a team of journalists at the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald that covered Hurricane Katrina, an effort that was recognized with the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He was also the president of the National Association of Black Journalists, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and frequently speaks on issues of technology, the media, diversity and pop culture. Monroe became the first head of a U.S. media organization to speak before the United Nations General Assembly Great Hall, and, in April 2007, was the first national voice to call for the firing of radio shock jock Don Imus after his comments about the Rutgers Women’s basketball team. Monroe is CEO of the Monroe Media Group, based in Chicago and on the board of several companies, including rrripple.com, a social media startup in Silicon Valley, and Urban Access Media Group, a new digital out-of-home company in Chicago.

Monroe will focus on media innovation, technology, leadership, new media, diversity and “backpack journalism,” and will work with both undergraduate and graduate students.

“What a wonderful opportunity to work with some of the smartest students in the country at the most innovative and exciting journalism school around,” said Monroe.

Monroe, a graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle, was inducted into that university’s Alumni Hall of Fame for the School of Communications and named one of the university’s 100 Most Distinguished Alumni. He was also the first African-American editor of the University of Washington DAILY. He has been recognized by Presstime magazine as one of the “20 Under 40” — the 20 top American journalists under 40 years old — and was named by MediaWeek magazine as one of the nation's “Media Elite.” He was also named by Folio magazine as one of the magazine industry’s 40 most influential innovators.