Jan Leach, Assistant Professor, Kent State University, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Jan Leach is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University. She teaches media ethics, copy editing, newswriting and other news courses and is director of Kent’s Media Law Center for Ethics and Access. She is coordinator and host of the annual Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop, which brings journalism practitioners together to debate and discuss current media ethics issues.

Jan is an Ethics Fellow at the Poynter Institute for Journalism Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. She also has edited three books for Gray & Co. publishers, Cleveland

Before joining the faculty at Kent, Jan was editor and vice president of the Akron Beacon Journal for five years, where she was responsible for news content, coverage and design. During her tenure, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists named the Beacon Journal “Best Newspaper in Ohio” three times.

As editor, Jan and her staff coordinated coverage of the 9/11 attacks, including publishing an “Extra” edition and launching and promoting the “Fire Truck Fund” that raised more than $1.3 million for new safety equipment in New York City.

Jan came to Akron from the Cincinnati Enquirer where she had been managing editor for nearly five years. She also was managing editor at the (now-defunct) Phoenix Gazette, city editor at the Arizona Republic, and held various reporting and editing positions at newspapers in Cincinnati, Findlay and Fostoria, Ohio.

She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s degree in media ethics from Kent State University. She wrote four chapters in the book “The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press,” published in 2009 and she is among those featured in the 2011 book “Good Enough is the New Perfect,” by Harlequin non-fiction.

She has been published in Nieman Reports, Poynter Online, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator and elsewhere.Jan is a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Within AEJMC’s Media Ethics Division, Jan is the Teaching Standards Chair. She is a member of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, the American Society of News Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Akron Press Club. She is a member of the board of the Millennium Fund for Children and the Beacon Journal Charity Fund, Akron.

At Kent State, Jan is a member of the graduate studies and curriculum committees and is adviser to Artemis, the independent student magazine.

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