Hussman School hosts NewsLab president Deborah Potter as Stembler Visiting Professional
The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is hosting Deborah Potter, president and executive director of NewsLab, Nov. 16-20, 2015, as the school’s second Stembler Visiting Professional.
Potter — an alumna of the school and veteran journalism trainer, reporter and writer — is visiting with students and faculty; guest lecturing in classes; and working with the school’s TV and radio broadcast productions.
The visiting professionals program is one of the inter-related initiatives in the school funded by a $3.25 million endowment gift from the estate of UNC alumnus John H. Stembler Jr. supporting the school’s award-winning broadcast program. The broadcast program has finished in the top five of the Hearst Journalism Awards collegiate national competition every year since 2003, including national championships in 2015, 2013, 2008 and 2006.
The Stembler endowment also supports a distinguished professorship, capstone immersive student experiences and a distinguished lecture series.
The visiting professionals program attracts accomplished broadcast journalism professionals to the school. These industry leaders bring the real world into the classroom and studio, offering unique insights into the current world of journalism while offering enhanced networking and mentoring capacity. NBC’s Bob Dotson became the school’s first Stembler Visiting Professional in September 2015.
Potter founded NewsLab, a non-profit journalism resource center, in 1998. She is a contributing correspondent to Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on PBS and writes the local TV chapter for the annual State of the News Media report from the Pew Research Center. She leads workshops for journalists in the United States and around the world, focusing on reporting and writing the news, online and visual storytelling, and journalism ethics. She also moderates panel discussions at national and regional conferences.
Potter is co-author of the journalism text "Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World" (2nd edition, CQ Press, 2012). Among her other publications are: "Incoming! Advice for the Newly Named News Director" (2006) and "Ready, Set, Lead: A Resource Guide for News Leaders" (2005), as well as the Handbook of Independent Journalism.
She spent more than a decade as the broadcast news columnist for American Journalism Review. She is a former faculty associate at the Poynter Institute. She is frequently quoted in newspapers and interviewed on television and radio about journalism issues. She is a skilled moderator of panel discussions and teleconferences and an experienced television host. Her program In the Prime ran for two years on PBS.
Potter is a former network correspondent for CBS and CNN. At CNN, she reported on national politics and environmental issues. She joined CNN after 13 years at CBS News, where she served as White House, State Department and Congressional Correspondent. She also was a frequent contributor to the prime time CBS News magazine 48 Hours, and hosted the interview program, Nightwatch.
From 2003 to 2004, she served as executive director of RTDNF, the research and training arm of the Radio-Television-Digital News Association.
Before joining CBS News, Potter worked as a news anchor for KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia; as a reporter for the Voice of America in Washington; and as a news producer for the ABC television affiliate in Washington.