Investigative journalism professor and investigations editor; Howard Center Investigative Journalism

University of Maryland

7575 Alumni Drive, College Park, Maryland, 20742, United States

Web:
Company Profile

Contact Email: smussend

Job : 12128

Job Views
: 117

Location: College Park, Maryland, United States

The Howard Center is an investigative reporting unit and journalism training program based at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation , it regularly partners with major national newsrooms — such as NPR, PBS News Hour, KFF Health News and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project — to produce deeply reported investigations.

The center, founded in 2019, specializes in investigative reporting that incorporates complex data and digital document analysis, advanced computational methods, and, increasingly, visual forensic and open source intelligence (OSINT) reporting techniques. In a partnership with the Associated Press global investigations team, a FRONTLINE (PBS) documentary unit and the Howard Center at Arizona State University, the center was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting in 2025 for an in-depth, data-driven investigation into police custody deaths.

The center has also won dozens of major journalism awards for its investigations, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a National Headliner Award and an IRE Medal.

This person will work full time as investigations editor in the Howard Center. In that role, they will:

• Serve as lead editor on investigative reporting projects produced by Howard Center graduate fellows and undergraduate students, working with Merrill College faculty, professional newsroom partners and partners at other journalism schools.
• Teach one course per semester — a total of two courses per year — that are directly integrated with Howard Center investigations. This includes a foundational Howard Center investigative reporting methods course and an intensive, multiday Howard Center investigative reporting capstone course.
• Work with the Howard Center director to identify, establish and manage partnerships with professional newsrooms and manage projects.

Applicants must have:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience working as a journalist.
• Experience producing investigative journalism as a reporter.
• Experience managing complex investigative journalism projects as an editor.

We expect successful candidates to bring some of the experiences listed below. No candidate is expected to have all of them. We are looking for someone who can demonstrate relevant experience in some of these areas, while articulating a clear interest in the others:

• Teaching and mentoring experience, which could include university-level teaching or consistently running workshops at professional conferences like IRE and NICAR.
• Experience working with data journalists on data-driven investigative projects and an openness to experimenting with new reporting methods that incorporate artificial intelligence and open source intelligence.
• Experience leading or participating in investigative collaborations involving multiple newsrooms.
• Experience with long-form writing and editing.
• Experience with — or a clear interest in learning — storytelling forms tailored to reach new audiences on multiple platforms.

Please provide:

• A CV
• A cover letter in which you:
  • Succinctly explain your interest in the position.
  • Explain, with specifics, how your experience and interests align with the listed responsibilities, requirements and preferred experiences.
• Links to three examples of your work, along with a brief explanation of your role in their production.