Eleventh James H. Ottaway Sr. Professor of Journalism to be introduced to New Paltz campus

NEW PALTZ –Andrew W. Lehren, an award-winning investigative reporter at The New York Times and the 2012 James H. Ottaway Sr. Professor of Journalism at the State University of New York at New Paltz, will be introduced to the campus community on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. in the Honors Center on the New Paltz campus.

Lehren will be interviewed about his life and career by SUNY New Paltz President Donald P. Christian.

Lehren joins the faculty for the spring 2012 semester to teach a seminar on enterprise and investigative reporting. The class will focus on in-depth, advanced reporting skills, including finding story ideas, examining public records, and using freedom of information laws and databases.

Lehren was one of the lead reporters on The New York Times’ groundbreaking coverage of the Wikileaks release of diplomatic cables, Afghanistan and Iraq war logs, and Guantanamo detainee dossiers. He contributed articles to the Pulitzer Prize-winning series that examined unregulated chemicals from China in U.S. pharmaceuticals. He teaches investigative journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

“SUNY New Paltz is extremely fortunate that this spring our students will have an opportunity to learn from someone of Mr. Lehren’s experience and quality,” said President Donald P. Christian. “His strong record of award-winning investigative coverage of several of the country’s burning issues for national newspapers and television networks make him a fitting addition to the distinguished cadre of accomplished media practitioners who have participated in the very special Ottaway Professor of Journalism Program.”

Lehren has been an investigative producer at NBC News. His work there included reports on fraud in the insurance industry, racial profiling, and defective automobiles. He has won a Polk award, a Peabody, two duPont-Columbia batons and Edward R. Murrow investigative awards, several Emmys and a Daniel Pearl Investigative Award.

Ten well-known journalists have preceded Lehren as Ottaway professors. Four have been Pulitzer Prize winners, including Renée C. Byer, a photographer for The Sacramento Bee; former New York Times investigative reporter and columnist Sydney Schanberg; Bernard Stein, an editorial writer with The Riverdale Press in the Bronx; and John Darnton, a former Times foreign correspondent.

Other past Ottaway professors were award-winning broadcast journalist and media consultant John Larson; Ann Cooper, a former NPR reporter who headed the Committee to Protect Journalists; Byron E. Calame, a longtime Wall Street Journal editor and reporter who has served as The New York Times’ public editor; Roger Kahn, the author of 20 books and one of America’s foremost literary journalists; Trudy Lieberman, one of America’s best consumer reporters; and Martin Gottlieb, the global edition editor of The New York Times.

The Ottaway Professorship is named for the founder of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., now the Dow Jones Loal Media Group, which operates print and online community media franchises in seven states. The flagship newspaper of the chain is the Times Herald-Record in Middletown.