Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications interim dean Charles Whitaker was voted to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Magazine Editors. He became the first academic in the Board’s 50-plus year history.

ASME, an industry trade group for editors of and journalists at magazines, is known for running the National Magazine Awards, considered by many to be the Pulitzer Prizes of the magazine industry. Whitaker has served as a judge and judging group leader at those awards for over a decade. He is also the first electee to not be actively serving as an editor-in-chief or editorial director of a media company.

Whitaker has a long history working in the magazine industry. He was a senior editor at Ebony Magazine where he covered cultural, social and political issues. He was also the co-author of “Magazine Writing,” a textbook on feature writing and the magazine industry and has contributed to magazines such as Jet Magazine, Essence Magazine, Chicago Parent magazine and Folio.

In addition to the textbook, Whitaker engages in academic study of the magazine industry, from authoring multiple statistical analyzes of the hiring of female and minority candidates in the industry to advising the Magazine Publishers of America, now known as The Association of Magazine Media, on diversity.

At Medill, he was a rotating director of the Magazine Publishing Project for graduate students and has taught magazine writing and magazine editing courses.

Whitaker previously served as the chairman of Students Publishing Company, the governing board of The Daily Northwestern.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @birenbomb