New member to join Medill journalism faculty

Ben Holden to teach undergrads and graduate students

EVANSTON, ILL. -- Ben Holden will join Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications this fall as a professor. Holden will teach both undergraduate and graduate students in media law and other journalism courses.

Holden has been teaching media law and news reporting in the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois College of Media and is a visiting faculty member at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. He was formerly an associate professor and director of the Reynolds National Center for Courts & Media at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The Center is an affiliate of the National Judicial College on the UNR campus.

His media consulting work includes assignments in the former Yugoslavia (Kosovo) on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the U.S. State Department to aid judges, journalists, and public information officers in developing professional press coverage of the courts. Previously, he practiced law at the Bay Area media law firm Cooper, White & Cooper and was editor-in-chief of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Ga. He spent his daily news reporting career at The Wall Street Journal, where he was eventually the Journal's national utilities correspondent.

His scholarship focuses on the free speech rights of students at public primary and secondary schools.

“Ben will be a great asset to Medill and its students, teaching critically important subjects for all journalists,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “We look forward to the contributions he will make here.”