Distinguished Chicago journalist Laura S. Washington will join the faculty of DePaul University this fall as its Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor.

An award-winning editor and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, Washington brings to the post more than two decades of diverse experience in print and broadcast journalism, urban affairs and social justice issues. She will teach courses in the communication department and in the African and Black Diaspora Studies programs of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LA&S). She also is expected to be a sought-after consultant, writer and lecturer on a variety of topics including media ethics, social advocacy, politics, race, poverty and urban affairs.

Washington’s illustrious career includes 18 years devoted to The Chicago Reporter, a nationally recognized investigative magazine specializing in issues related to race. She began her professional career at The Chicago Reporter in 1980, and served as a co-managing editor of the publication before leaving, in 1985, to take a post as deputy press secretary to the late Mayor Harold Washington. Washington returned to the Reporter as editor in 1990, where she served until 2002, becoming its publisher, and finally editor and publisher emerita.

Washington was cited by Newsweek magazine as one of the nation’s “100 People to Watch” in the 21st century. Newsweek stated that “her style of investigative journalism has made (The Chicago Reporter) a powerful and award-winning voice.”

Washington’s print journalism experience also includes a stint as a columnist at the Chicago Tribune, where she specialized in issues of race, poverty and urban affairs. On the broadcast side of journalism, she has worked extensively in television and radio, and is currently a commentator/analyst for WBEZ radio’s “848” news magazine program, and a frequent urban affairs analyst for “Chicago Tonight” and “Chicago Week in Review” on WTTW-TV, Chicago’s Public Broadcast Service affiliate.

Her numerous awards reflect her commitment to journalism as a vehicle to effect social change. They include: two Chicago Emmys, the Peter Lisagor Award for outstanding journalism, the Studs Terkel Award for Community Journalism and the Ohio State University Award for broadcast journalism. She has received the Racial Justice Award from the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, is a founding inductee into the Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement and a recipient of the 2002 Northwestern University Alumnae Award. The Chicago Community Trust named her a 1999-2000 Community Service Fellow for exemplary service, commitment and leadership.

Washington earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Medill, at Northwestern, and has been an adjunct instructor and lecturer at the school.

“Laura Washington brings to DePaul a career, passion and commitment that embodies the life work of racial justice crusader and journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett,” said Richard Meister, executive vice-president of Academic Affairs. “We are extremely proud to include her among our faculty and look forward to the fruition of a relationship that will be very beneficial to our students, faculty and the university as a whole.”

DePaul named professor, author and scholar Michael Eric Dyson to the first Wells-Barnett professorship in 1999. Washington will hold the post for a five-year term.

“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to enrich and broaden my professional skills in the arena of education, and hope to learn as much as I give to the expert faculty and staff of DePaul,” said Washington of her new position “I would like to expand DePaul’s horizons into the national arena – both for myself and DePaul. After all, this professorship offers a bully pulpit to talk about race and social justice, and to stimulate solution-oriented public debate on these issues.”

Washington said that learning the professorship she would hold at DePaul was named for one of her childhood heroes was a gratifying revelation. “I have idolized Ida B. Wells-Barnett since I was a young girl growing up on the South Side of Chicago,” she said. “Her career, in many ways parallels mine, and I don’t mean that immodestly. Here was a woman who put her life on the line defending African Americans. I saw her as an investigative reporter, an educator, a voice for the voiceless – someone who was fearless and a catalyst for change. That’s what I’d like to think that I’ve done on some modest level in the positions I’ve held in Chicago.”

Wells-Barnett, a staunch defender of African-Americans’ civil rights, among her many activities risked her life when she published a series of editorials decrying the injustice of lynching. She settled in Chicago in 1893, where she lived until her death in 1931. Two of her grandsons are DePaul graduates: Benjamin C. Duster, who received a DePaul law degree in 1954, and Donald L. Duster, who earned an MBA in 1977.