New Century Journalism Advisory Board
Rob Curley
Mr. Curley is the Director of New Media for the Naples Daily News. He is the former head of one of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning Web development teams in the world. Curley was Director of New Media and Convergence for The World Company and leader of World Online, the Internet division of the Lawrence Journal-World.
Lorrie Grant
Ms. Grant is a veteran retail reporter for the Money section of USA Today. She has been with the Gannett owned paper since 1997. In 1998, she was among a select number of journalists who participated in the Case Media Fellowship on Business Reporting at Vanderbilt University. She started her reporting career in 1988 at Reuters. While at Reuters, she covered financial news and was promoted to bureau chief in Charlotte, N.C.
John Seigenthaler
Mr. Seigenthaler was named anchor of the weekend editions of NBC Nightly News in July 1999. He anchors the top-rated broadcast on both Saturdays and Sundays, in addition to serving as contributing anchor to MSNBC, NBC's 24-hour all-news and information channel. Seigenthaler also anchors MSNBC Investigates, a documentary series that has included hour-long programming on topics such as Bio Terror: the New War, Back to Ground Zero, Inside Afghanistan, and Bin Laden's Trail of Terror.
Scott Simon
Mr. Simon is host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday, and has won many major awards in broadcasting including the Peabody Award for radio essays. His book, Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan (2000), was cited as one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and The Washington Post.
Al Tompkins
Mr. Tompkins is broadcast/online group leader at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. He writes and teaches about trends in media convergence. He focuses on writing, producing, storytelling, ethics and leadership in broadcast newsrooms. He is winner of more than 100 journalism awards, including a 1999 Clarion Award for co-producing Saving Stefani an hour-long documentary for Dateline NBC.
Michelle Williams
Ms. Williams manages the AP's largest U.S. operation under one new editor, which includes 46 reporters, editors and photographers in eight Texas bureau and a regional bureau in Washington, D.C. The Texas AP now engages in muli-platform reporting at all bureaus. In 2005 she directed coverage of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom Delay, the nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court, the trials of Texas soldiers accused in the Abu Graib prison abuse scandal and NASA's first shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster. Michelle is a Belmont journalism alum.
