JEROME AUMENTE: BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS Jerome Aumente is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Communication and Information (SC&I), Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey. He devotes his time to writing and to regional, national and international assignments as a media consultant specializing in journalism and mass communications training and university curriculum development. He has extensive experience in the international training of journalists; joint curriculum development with universities internationally and in the United States; as a trainer in health communication, the Internet and newer media technologies; investigative and enterprise reporting; business, economic and financial reporting. He has been a consultant to major foundations including the John and James L. Knight Foundation; the German Marshall Fund and the Ford Foundation evaluating professional training and mid-career programs for journalists. He has been a consultant to the U.S. State Department doing media needs assessments in Europe and as a program evaluator for journalism curriculum projects in Russia. He was founding Director of the Journalism Resources Institute (JRI) and was founder and former Chairperson of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies. Both units are in the School of Communication and Information , one of the first interdisciplinary schools founded in the United States, which he helped design at the request of the university provost. He was Special Counselor to the Dean of SC&I from 2000 to 2015. The Journalism Resources Institute conducted nearly $5 million in projects, and trained over 14,000 print and broadcast journalists under his direction, with over $2 million in media training and journalism projects in Central and Eastern Europe. The JRI, under his leadership, had special projects in international affairs, journalism and mass communications, new media technologies, health, medical, and environmental coverage, media and law, evaluation of professional training of journalists, business and financial journalism. He has published four books with the most recent, “From Ink on Paper to the Internet”, an examination of newer media technology and the Internet, winning the Society of Professional Journalists national award for journalism research in 2008. His earlier books examine journalism in Eastern Europe; the development of electronic publishing, and a guide for young people examining misinformation in the media. HIGHLIGHTS AMONG HIS RECENT ACTIVITIES: • Program developer and moderator for a two-week program in which Jordanian journalists were guests of the State Department to observe the presidential election in the United States. Meetings were held with news media, universities, governmental and nongovernmental units in Washington, DC, Boston, Chicago and in Winchester, Virginia in a program facilitated by Meridian International Center, Washington, DC. ( October-November 2012) and funded by the State Department. • Evaluated media assistance and journalism training programs in Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Belarus as senior evaluator with Mendez, England and Associates, Bethesda, Maryland, in a program supported by the U.S. State Department, Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. (October 2011 to Fall 2012). • Program developer and moderator for a visit of Egyptian journalists to New York City in December of 2011 to meet with news media professionals and journalism associations in an international visitors program of the U.S. State Department conducted by Meridian International Center, Washington, D.C. • Fulbright Specialist assigned to University of Vilnius in Lithuania, month of September 2011, to conduct lectures in new media and the Internet with graduate students, meet with faculty in the Institute of Journalism to discuss curriculum development and mutual research interests and conduct guest lecture at International School of Law and Business through American Embassy. 1 • Curriculum development in health journalism and health communication in Mozambique as a consultant in a program initiated by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Assistance to universities and journalist associations in establishing undergraduate and graduate curriculum, and professional journalism training projects in Maputo beginning with a field visit the summer of 2011. Focus on prevention of communicable diseases, with attention to HIV/AIDS and curriculum development in 2012. • Guest speaker and trainer in Romania in April of 2011 conducting workshops in economic reporting for journalists in Bucharest, Galati, Bacau and Iasi on behalf of the U.S. State Department and the American Embassy. Guest speaker at print and broadcast media news organizations. • Invited speaker at Harvard University in May of 2011 in a conference sponsored by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard examining international media assistance, lessons learned in Eastern Europe and possible applications in the Middle East and democratic transition. • Winner of the “Legacy Award” of the Livingston College of Rutgers University Alumni Association, May of 2011, in recognition of his work in establishing the Journalism/Urban Communications program, then department, and the Urban Communications Teaching and Research Center during the 1970’s. • State Department lecturer in Vilnius, Lithuania in the Fall of 2009 giving presentations on newer media and the Internet, health and environmental journalism at the University of Vilnius and Vytautus Magnus University in Kaunus; to journalists at the Lithuanian branch of Transparency International; to journalists and communication specialists through the Foundation for Patients’ Safety, and to online journalists of Internet portals in Lithuania. Individual consultations on curriculum development at universities; press interview on economic journalism, and consultations with the heads of the Lithuanian Journalists Union. Programs arranged through the American Embassy, Office of Public Affairs, in Vilnius. • Presentations in Bangkok, Thailand, October of 2009 on newer media approaches to coverage of environmental health journalism at the Environmental Journalism Workshops sponsored by the Fogarty International Training and Research Environmental and Occupational Health Center. A co-project of the College of Public Health Sciences of Chulalongkorn University and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences of Rutgers University through a grant of the National Institutes of Health. Also, presentation to graduate students at Chulalongkorn University on health communication and journalism strategies. His paper, “Journalistic Coverage of Environmental Health Issues in the Age of the Internet”, was published as a two part series in January and February 2010 in “InPrint”, the publication of the New Jersey Press Association. • Visiting scholar at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, in December of 2009 conducting research and interviews with principals at the center on journalism education and exchange programs for journalist , and the impact of newer media and the Internet on such initiatives. The center is funded by private foundations and Congress with a focus on Asia and is on the University of Hawaii campus in Oahu. • In 2010, Professor Aumente was approved for the Fulbright Specialist Program’s ongoing initiatives and nominated for an assignment in the Fall of 2011 at Vilnius University. • Based on his previous experience in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2008 with the Iraqi shoe thrower, he published an article in the May 2009 issue of “Quill” , the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists entitled: “Who is the Iraqi Shoe Thrower and Other Lessons for Journalism Trainers in a Time of Global Conflict”. He was then invited to write a follow-up article on this subject for the Winter 2009 Issue of Nieman Reports of Harvard University as part of its special section on journalists in peril and the impact of trauma which appeared as “The Iraqi Shoe Thrower: When Journalists Need Help.” 2 • In the March 2010 issue of “ InPrint”, the publication of the New Jersey Press Association he wrote an article entitled “ Lessons in Working With International Journalists”. • Organizer of a citizen petition campaign in Warren County, Virginia to have the phone company and the cable television company extend its higher speed Internet services to under-served areas. The campaign has won its first concessions from the phone company to extend its DSL services. He was also invited to serve on the management team of a federal Housing and Urban Development grant to Warren County government to plan a comprehensive telecommunications and broad band program for Warren County, Virginia. 2009-2010 and ongoing. • ARAB JOURNALISM AND MIDDLE EAST INITIATIVES: Ongoing programs for journalists from the Middle East through 2012. Program co-developer, trainer and moderator for a series of three, three-week workshops in 2004 and two, two-week workshops in 2005 for journalists from Arab news media representing print and broadcast journalists from approximately eight different countries in the Middle East, North Africa and from European operations. The intensive workshops were sponsored by the Meridian International Center, Washington, DC, with support from the U.S. State Department through the Arab Media Outreach Center , American Embassy, London and the Foreign Press Centers of the State Department.