Professor of practice health

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University is seeking an experienced professional journalist to teach and lead a team of advanced undergraduate and graduate students in multimedia coverage of health disparities in the Southwestern United States.

Holding the rank of professor of practice, the successful candidate will be a journalist of the highest caliber with strong digital news experience and a multimedia-minded, innovative thinker who is comfortable in a highly energized news environment. The candidate will demonstrate a commitment to accuracy, fairness and collaboration, and possess the skills to inspire, instruct, edit and support a team of student journalists through clear direction and meaningful feedback.

This faculty role leads a partnership between the Cronkite School and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that provides high-quality news about health-related topics and issues that impact residents of Arizona and people across the Southwest, particularly underrepresented communities. Content will expose and explore the current state of health disparities in the Southwest, with stories focused on health care access, healthy and equitable living conditions, and the equitability and accountability of public health and healthcare systems. Content is published in English and Spanish across a variety of media outlets including Cronkite News (the Cronkite School’s award-winning, student-staffed, faculty-led news outlet) and national distribution partners.

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, grant-funded, nine-month appointment at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. It is not a tenure-track appointment.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Leading, editing and mentoring a team of upper-level undergraduate and graduate journalism students in a full-time, daily news environment (typical hours are approximately 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday), and/or related courses
• Leading and managing the health news desk, continuing to cultivate it as a key source of health news and information in the Southwest, with a strong focus on underserved communities including Latine, Indigenous and Spanish-speaking border communities
• Coaching students through the development and reporting of stories on health disparities, emphasizing enterprise reporting techniques
• Editing written student work on deadline for national distribution through a network of publishing partners
• Teaching students to engage audiences through multimedia and social media content creation
• Engaging key audiences, including policymakers, healthcare leaders and residents of the targeted areas to enhance and inform coverage
• Growing and nurturing a network of media partners to distribute health-related news and information throughout the region
• Leading and producing impactful reporting for school leadership and funders
• Managing budgets together with school leaders
• Working collaboratively with other faculty and media partners to plan, manage and produce innovative and professional news and information content across platforms
• Fostering a culture of innovation by harnessing fresh ideas and experimenting with new tools, technologies and techniques that enhance digital and social media storytelling
• Performing other faculty responsibilities (such as committee assignments, workshops and student mentorship) as assigned

About the Cronkite School

The Cronkite School is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier colleges of journalism and mass communication. The school fosters excellence and ethics among students as they master the professional skills they need to succeed in the media world of today and tomorrow.

The Cronkite School is located on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus, in the heart of the nation’s fifth-largest city, with additional centers in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The Cronkite faculty includes award-winning journalists, strategic communicators, digital media thought leaders, media entrepreneurs and world-class media scholars.

Cronkite offers bachelor’s degrees in journalism and mass communication, sports journalism, digital audiences, mass communication and media studies, and digital media literacy. The School offers master’s degrees in strategic communications, mass communication, sports journalism, investigative journalism and digital audience strategy as well as a PhD program in journalism and mass communication.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Southwest Health Reporting Communications Initiative

The Cronkite School is a national leader in news media coverage of communities along the U.S.-Mexico border and across the Southwest, and a leading provider of Spanish-language news and information on digital and broadcast platforms. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Southwest Health Reporting Initiative, launched in 2019, has built on and significantly expanded those efforts, and is now providing critically needed news and information to underserved communities, with a particular emphasis on Latine, Indigenous and Spanish-speaking border communities.

  About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is committed to improving health and health equity in the United States. In partnership with others, we are working to develop a Culture of Health rooted in equity that provides every individual with a fair and just opportunity to thrive, no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they have. For more information, visit

About Cronkite News

Cronkite News is a multi-platform daily news operation that serves as an immersive and innovative learning laboratory for students and provides daily and enterprise news coverage of critical issues on audio, broadcast, digital and social platforms. Students create content under the guidance of award-winning, experienced professionals, working out of a state-of-the-art newsroom located on ASU’s downtown Phoenix campus in the nation’s 11th-largest media market. Cronkite News also serves as a test bed for innovation, experimenting with new forms of storytelling, audience engagement, digital interactivity and data visualization for the rest of the industry. Cronkite News has more than 100 media outlets that regularly publish or air student content.

About Arizona State University

Arizona State University, ranked the No. 1 “Most Innovative School” in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for nine years in succession, has forged the model for a New American University. Year after year, ASU ranks at or near the top of the list in areas that matter. ASU is a comprehensive public research institution, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves. ASU operates on the principles that learning is a personal and original journey for each student; that they thrive on experience and that the process of discovery cannot be bound by traditional academic disciplines. Through innovation and a commitment to accessibility, ASU has drawn pioneering researchers to its faculty even as it expands opportunities for qualified students, attracting some of the highest-quality students from all 50 states and more than 130 nations.

Required Qualifications

• At least 10 years of professional journalism experience in a major-market or national media organization, or equivalent experience
• Bachelor’s degree

  Desired Qualifications

• Experience producing and editing text stories for national audiences
• Experience leading and managing a team of journalists, particularly early-career journalists, and editing their work according to AP Style
• Measurable success in engaging audiences around news content
• Experience building relationships and working with partner news organizations
• Experience covering or directing coverage of health issues, and developing and producing deeply reported digital enterprise health journalism
• Ability to create and edit audio, photo and video storytelling
• Ability to edit content in Spanish
• Master’s degree

Application materials must include:

1. .  Curriculum vitae or resume
2. A cover letter stating qualifications
3. A link to work examples, with a written explanation of the role the applicant played in the creation and execution of each work sample
4. Contact information (name, address, email, telephone number) for three professional references

Successful candidates will demonstrate throughout their materials how their teaching, research, and service will contribute to the fulfillment of the ASU Charter.

The applicant’s name should appear in each uploaded file name. Cover letters may be addressed to the Search Committee Chair, Cronkite Assistant Dean Brett Kurland. Questions should be directed to the search committee chair at: .

Application deadline  Friday, June 28, 2024 . Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis for a reserve pool. Applications in the reserve pool may then be reviewed in the order in which they were received until the position is filled. Applicants must apply online at:

A background check is required for employment. Arizona State University is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.

In compliance with federal law, ASU prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and resources. ASU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at  You may request a hard copy of the report by contacting the ASU Police Department at .