Ellen Shearer is the William F. Thomas Professor Emerita of Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.
She is also the former Washington Bureau Chief of Medill News Service and former head of of Medill’s Politics, Policy and Foreign Affairs Graduate specialization. She has written and taught extensively in the areas of political journalism, national security journalism and watchdog journalism.
She is co-author of the book “Nonvoters: America’s No-Shows”; created and edited, with colleagues, “Whistleblowers, Leaks and the Media” and “National Security Law in the News: A Guide for Journalists, Scholars and Policymakers,” both published by the American Bar Association Publishing; wrote chapters for six books on journalism; and produced a five-part online curriculum, “The James W. Foley Guide on Journalists’ Safety.” Shearer, along with Matt Mansfield, created and edited “Truth Counts: A Practical Guide for News Consumers,” published by CQ Press in 2018.
Shearer is past president of the Washington Press Club Foundation and since 1999 has coordinated judging for the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual awards. She has served as an accreditor for the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
Before joining the Medill faculty, Shearer was an editor at Newhouse News Service, a senior editor at Newsday in NewYork, a marketing executive at Reuters and New England Vice President for United Press International.
She began her career as a reporter for UPI in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She has a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in interactive journalism from American University.
