Deborah Gump Ph.D.

w Editor | Educator
740-603-3420 w gumpdl@gmail.com w @deborahgump

n An experienced editor with management experience

n Innovative educator and professional development trainer
n Grant administrator & project manager, with a focus on gatherings
that share industry expertise in the skillful use of language and information
EDUCATION
2002

Ph.D., Journalism and Mass Communication | Freedom Forum Fellow, School of

Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

1977

B.A., Journalism | William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass

Communications, University of Kansas

WORK HISTORY
20122015

Visiting professor, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina

Director of the senior semester practicum multimedia journalism students.
Supervised students in their final semester producing award-winning news,
features, photos and videos for use by statewide news organizations. During my
tenure, the role grew to include added responsibilities, including development of
an assessment program for the cross-platform introductory writing course and
efforts to help faculty and adjunct teachers share knowledge, pool resources and
improve skills.

20112012

John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies, Middle Tennessee

State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Director of the Chairs program to enhance the publics knowledge of and
appreciation for the First Amendment through speakers and programs. Under my
leadership, through grants and management of its $182,000 budget, the Chair
brought to campus Pulitzer Prize-winner Leonard Pitts Jr.; Sandy Johnson, then
managing editor for politics and government at the Center for Public Integrity and
now president of the National Press Foundation; writer and filmmaker Sebastian
Junger; and Arsalan Iftikhar, senior editor, Islamic Monthly. The Chair also
sponsored, with a McCormick Foundation grant, Covering Islam in the Bible
Belt, a three-day workshop at the First Amendment Center in Nashville.

20092012

Professional in residence, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro,

Tennessee
Professor, responsible for introductory writing and editing courses while working
with administrators and faculty to introduce new tools and techniques into the
curriculum and the academic life of the school. Key efforts included introducing a
still-vibrant Facebook group for student, faculty and alumni and collaborating on
the College of Mass Communications new media innovation lab.

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20072009

Director of print/online, Committee of Concerned Journalists, Washington, D.C.

Administrator and lead trainer of CCJs national print/online training program,
which used experienced teams of trainers to lead in-newsroom training sessions.
The program used the Socratic method to help journalists strengthen their critical
thinking skills about the core principles of journalism, such as accuracy,
verification and fairness.

20012007

Director and professor, Knight Ohio Program for Editing and Editing Education,
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
As director of the Knight program, I set the vision for the newly launched program,
managed its $160,000 annual budget and supervised, in consultation with Knight
officials and school administrators, a multipronged approach: create national
programs that improved the editing education of students; offer professional
development for working editors; develop partnerships between academia and the
profession to help raise the profile of editings importance; support applied editing
research; and develop new courses for the school while revamping existing
courses.

19871999

Senior editor, Marin Independent Journal, Novato, California

Supervisor, responsible for production of news sections and news desk hiring,
evaluations and professional development. During my tenure, the paper was
honored by the California Newspaper Publishers Association as the best
newspaper in its circulation category in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1992, and by
Gannett Company with its Outstanding Achievement Award in 1987 and 1990
and with its Top Headline Award in 1990.

1995 Visiting news editor, USA Today, at the time headquartered in Rosslyn, Va.
Special projects editor attached to the editorial page.
19851986

Assistant news editor, Knight Ridder Tribune News Wire, Washington, D.C.
Liaison with editors from 32 contributing newspapers to request news and
features, then edit and deliver content to 300 clients.

19831984

National news editor, San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, California
Editor responsible for selection and editing of national news; member of team that
created the newspapers first health/science section; and member of task force that
wrote the newspapers first code of ethics.
Wire editor and reporter, Times-Union, Rochester, New York
As wire editor, prepared the national coverage and PM Report, a package on
timely issues. As a reporter, wrote stories ranging from a comparison of two towns
images using economic and sociological benchmarks to a cancer patients struggle
with traditional and alternative medicine.

KEY PRESENTATIONS & SEMINARS

Consultant, Boston Globe, headline workshops and individual consultations focused
on finding the voice of the story, 2015; Tampa Tribune, workshops on skills and
relevant research, Tampa, Florida. 2004.

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Writing coach, South Carolina Press Association. Sessions at 13 SCPA member

newsrooms included journalism management discussions, writing seminars and
one-on-one coaching. Summer, 2013.
Co-director, Maynard Multimedia Editing Program, Reno, Nevada. The six-week
summer program, taught by a rotating faculty of top print and online editors,
equipped participants to help their news organizations strengthen the print product
and build a robust online presence. 20092011.
Poynter course creator and seminar leader, online. Writing Better Headlines. Fourweek group seminar created for Poynters News University focused on
understanding different, using strategies such as SEO principles, creativity
cultivation and self-editing tools. 2010present.
Session leader, Tennessee Press Association convention, Nashville, Tennessee.
Editing Help Desk: Strategies to help the reader, 2011; Poynter Institute, selftraining strategies gleaned from two dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, St. Petersburg,
Florida, 2003; American Copy Editors Society national conferences, You Need to
Know This, applying research to journalistic work, 2003 in Chicago, Illinois, 2006
in Cleveland, Ohio.
Organizer and Sponsor, Editing the Future conferences. Launched under the
auspices of the Knight Ohio Program for Editing and Editing Education and
designed to help editors re-engineer their copy desks for the changing media
landscape. The first conference, co-sponsored by the Poynter Institute, the
Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and the Freedom Forum Diversity
Institute and held at the Freedom Forums center at Vanderbilt University in 2003,
featured speakers, with their positions at the time, John Seigenthaler, founder of the
First Amendment Center; Bob Giles, curator of the Nieman Foundation for
Journalism; and Karen Brown Dunlap, Poynter president.
The second Editing the Future conference was co-sponsored by the American Copy
Editors Society in conjunction with its 2005 conference. Speakers, with their
positions at the time, included Bill Keller, executive editor, The New York Times;
Rick Rodriguez, president, American Society of Newspaper Editors; and Phil
Meyer, Knight professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
author of The Vanishing Newspaper.
Faculty, Summer Institute for Midcareer Copy Editors, a nationally competitive oneweek summer institute for 18 midcareer copy editors, funded by the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North
Carolina. 20032006.
Founder, Ohio News Editor Symposium (ONES). Under the Knight Ohio Program for
Editing and Editing Education, editors from Ohio newspapers gathered regularly at
Ohio University to find solutions to common problems, supported by workshops
and seminar leaders. 20012003.

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KEY PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Judge, Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, 2015; Online News
Association Awards, screener, 2015; South Carolina Press Association annual
awards, 20122013; Digital First Media annual awards, 2013; Free to Tweet, a
national celebration of the First Amendment funded by the Knight Foundation,
2012.
Creator of Gamecocks Write, a language-skills and writing resource site for
journalism students at the University of South Carolina. 2014.
Co-director, Covering Islam in the Bible Belt, a Specialized Reporting Institute
funded by the McCormick Foundation. The institute trained 22 journalists from
across the South on best practices covering the topic. The institute closed with an
open community discussion on Islamic law. 2012
Liaison, National Advocacy Center, South Carolina-based training sessions for U.S.
Department of Justice, United States Attorneys Office. 2012, 2014.
Session organizer, American Society of News Editors convention, This is Serious!
Developing Information Toys and News Games, Washington, D.C., 2010; Online
News Association convention, Its Data-Hunting Season, San Francisco,
California, 2009.
Founder and director, Breakfast of Editing Champions, Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communication. The breakfasts are venues for educators to
enhance their teaching by sharing ideas and gaining a deeper understanding of
industry trends and issues. About 50 professors attended the first breakfast in 2002
in Miami; at the 2011 breakfast in St. Louis, attendance had grown to more than
150. 20022011.
Creator and editor, EditTeach.org. The website, created as part of the Knight Ohio
Program for Editing and Editing Education, provides interactive learning and
training tools, as well as hundreds of online resources for editing professors, their
students and working professionals. 2002present.
Administrator, 20012006, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internships. Using outreach
and prep programs, the number of students winning DJNF internships increased
from none in 2000 to five in 2007.
Editor, EditThink.org, under development.
GRANTS
Specialized Reporting Institute, Covering Islam in the Bible Belt, McCormick
Foundation, $40,000. 2011.
Liberty Tree Initiative, Freedom Sings, a program of the McCormick Foundation,
$5,000. 2012.

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Newspapers-in-Residence partnership with the Tallahassee Democrat, Association for

Education in Journalism and Mass Education, $15,000. 20032004.
Newspapers-in-Residence partnership with Newsday, Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Education, $14,000. 20022003.
Breakfast of Editing Champions, annual $2,000 grants from the Hearst Corporation
and the Dow Jones News Fund to support the breakfast at AEJMC conventions.
KEY PUBLICATIONS
On Editing and Editing Education, Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication,
Journal of the Small Programs Interest Group of AEJMC, SpringSummer, 2012.
Editing stories, Chapter 5 in Creative Editing by Dorothy Bowles and Diane Borden,
99123, Sixth Edition, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011.
Textbook and research reviewer: Reviewer, Editing for Today's Newsroom, A Guide
for Success in a Changing Profession by Carl Sessions Stepp, Routledge, 2008;
reviewer, AEJMC research papers, 2006, 2007 and 2008; reviewer, conference
submissions, Blogging and Online Journalism: New Media, New Challenges,
New Ethics at Ohio University, 2006.
"Editing the Future: Helping Copy Desks Meet the Challenge of Changing Media,"
report on conference co-sponsored by the Knight Foundation, the Poynter Institute,
the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and the Freedom Forum Diversity
institute, 2003.
Reader Mindset and Bias: A Closer Look at the People Who Say We Skew the
News, AEJMC convention, Phoenix, Arizona, August 2000; AEJMC colloquium,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 2000.
New York Sports-speak: The Times, Daily News, and Post Talk to Mets Fans,
AEJMC colloquium, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 2000.
Dissertation: The role of vivid language in the perception of fairness and other story
attributes by readers and reporters. Adviser: Dr. Donald Shaw.
MEMBERSHIPS
ONA, Online News Association; IRE, Investigative Reporters and Editors; JAWS,
Journalism & Women Symposium; ACES, American Copy Editors Society; ASNE,
American Society of Newspaper Editors; SPJ, Society of Professional Journalists;
AEJMC, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.