Will Sutton to Join HU Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications

Hampton, VA - Will Sutton, former deputy managing editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. and former president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), will serve as the Scripps Howard Visiting Professor at Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications (SHSJC) for the 2005-2006 academic school year, announced SHSJC Dean Tony Brown.

Sutton, a graduate of Hampton University, had been responsible for supervising features, sports and the news copy desk at The News & Observer. While at HU, Sutton worked at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, La., and as a reporter at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. Sutton previously served as editor and vice president of the Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind., and in 1999, he was elected president of NABJ, the nation’s largest media organization of people of color.

For over a decade Sutton has served on the board of visitors at the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park and has served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC) and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and is an Eagle Scout through the Boy Scouts of America. In 1996, he received the Maynard Institute’s Diversity Award.

Additional positions named within SHSJC include:

Jack E. White, Scripps Howard Endowed Chair - White is one of America’s most outspoken and insightful commentators on politics, race and social issues. In a 29-year career with TIME before he retired in 2001, White served as a correspondent or bureau chief in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, Nairobi and Washington and as editor of the Nation Section, which covers national affairs. White previously served as Visiting Professor at HU.

Earl Caldwell, Writer-in-Residence - Caldwell is a nationally renowned journalist who has witnessed and chronicled some of the most important civil rights events of the past 40 years and was the only reporter present when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. As a writer-in-residence, Caldwell is writing "The Caldwell Journals," a serialized account of the black journalist movement spawned by the 1960s civil rights movement. Caldwell previously served as the Scripps Howard Endowed Chair at HU.

Doug Smith, Visiting Professor of Journalism Ethics - Smith, a graduate of Hampton University, is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of successful achievement as an editor and writer with Newsday, The New York Post, and USA Today. He is the author of Zina, My Life in Women’s Tennis and the Writers Notes Book Award winning Whirlwind: The Godfather of Black Tennis. The visiting professor of journalism ethics is supported by a $120,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation was founded in 1982 for charitable, scientific and educational purposes, including the improvement of the quality of the practice of journalism among various media. Smith previously served as Visiting Professor at HU.