Christopher Callahan is associate dean of the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism and senior editor of the American Journalism Review. A former Washington correspondent for The Associated Press, Callahan is a graduate of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He specializes in political and governmental reporting, uses of the Internet for journalists, investigative reporting, online journalism, ethics and diversity issues in the newsroom. For more details on Callahan, see the following:

The Internet for Journalists: Callahan's book, "A Journalist's Guide to the Internet: The Net as a Reporting Tool," was originally published by Allyn & Bacon in December 1998. The second edition was released in 2002. The text is based on Callahan's research into practical uses of the Internet for reporters and editors on deadline. He has delivered seminars and workshops on the Internet for a wide variety of professional journalists and journalism organizations, including the Investigative Reporters & Editors, the Los Angeles Times, the Society of Professional Journalists, USA TODAY, the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, the Associated Press, Voice of America and the National Conference of Editorial Writers. His Web site, reporter.umd.edu, has become one of the most used sites by journalists, with nearly 100,000 visits in its first two years.

Journalism Teaching: Callahan has taught more than 160 credit hours since entering journalism education in 1989. Graduate and undergraduate courses he has taught at the University of Maryland at College Park, Columbia College of Chicago and Boston University include: Topics in Public Affairs Reporting, Reporting from Washington and Annapolis, Press, Politics and Public Policy, News Reporting, Writing the Complex Story, Fundamentals of Writing and Editing for Graduate Students, Mass Media Writing, Reporting for Graduate Students, Supervised Internship, Master's Professional Fieldwork and Feature Writing. His latest courses are the freshman Professional Orientation course, Ethics in Journalism, Online Reporting, Reporting for Graduate Students and Specialized News Reporting: Online Journalism, the University of Maryland's first online journalism production course, and Online Reporting. He was nominated by the Panhellenic Association & Interfraternity Council for its Outstanding Teacher Award in 1997.

Capital News Service: Callahan is director of Capital News Service, the University of Maryland's advanced public affairs reporting program. Students working in full-time bureaus in Annapolis and Washington write breaking, feature and enterprise stories each day for 16 daily newspapers, including The Washington Post and The (Baltimore) Sun, plus several dozen weekly newspapers, in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Callahan was the Annapolis bureau chief from 1990-1991 and Washington bureau chief from 1991-1993. He has served as program director since 1991 and continues to oversee the bureaus.

Associate Dean: Callahan was named associate dean of the college in 1998 after serving five years as assistant dean. His administrative duties include serving as coordinator of the master's program, director of Capital News Service, coordinator of the adjunct faculty, director of UMTV, the college's cable television station, and executive director emeritus of the Maryland Scholastic Press Association for high school journalism students. He also was the adviser to the campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists when it was named the best student chapter in the nation in both 1994 and 1995.

Professional Background: Callahan is a senior editor and regular contributor of the American Journalism Review, the monthly press critique operated by the College of Journalism. Before entering journalism education, he worked for The Associated Press as a Washington correspondent, a Statehouse and general assignment reporter in Boston, a general assignment reporter and editor in Providence, R.I., a Statehouse reporter in Augusta, Maine, and a reporter in Concord, N.H. He also worked for States News Service in Washington and during college had reporting internships at The Boston Globe and Newsday.

Diversity in the News: Callahan was honored by the University of Maryland's Diversity Initiative as its Outstanding Faculty Member in 1997 for his work on diversity issues. Callahan led the College of Journalism's successful efforts in 1996 to move the national headquarters of the National Association of Black Journalists to campus and helped create the new NABJ Media Institute in 1997. In 2004, he led a UNITY: Journalists of Color Inc. research project that studied diversity in the Washington press corps. The Newspaper Research Journal published research conducted by Callahan that found a direct link between the racial makeup of high schools and the likelihood of those schools publishing a student newspaper. He also has lectured and written about diversity in the news issues for the Newspaper Association of America and the Poynter Institute.

International Journalism: Callahan conducts an annual week-long professional development workshop for the Alfred Friendly Press Fellows, a group of international journalists who work in U.S. newsrooms for five months. He also has delivered seminars, lectures and workshops on a variety of press topics to international journalists brought to the United States by the U.S. Information Agency and the Humphrey Journalism Fellows.

Educational Background: Callahan received a master's in public administration in 1990 from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He attended the school's Lucius N. Littauer mid-career program on a Scripps-Howard Foundation Fellowship. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Boston University's College of Communication, where he was named the Society of Professional Journalists' Outstanding Graduate of 1982. He also was a Paul Miller Fellow for Washington correspondents in 1988-1989 and has attended week-long professional seminars sponsored by the Poynter Institute, the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting and the Freedom Forum's Pacific Coast Center.

Personal: A New York native, Callahan lives in Great Falls, Va., with his wife of 17 years, Jeanmarie Callahan. They have two children, Cody, 12, and Casey, 7. Callahan is a long-distance runner, completing his first marathon in May 2000 (the Long Island Marathon) and running the Steamtown Marathon later that year in four hours. He also coaches in the Great Falls Little League and is an avid fan of baseball, football and college basketball.

Related Web Sites

Harvard University Kennedy School of Government