Professor Eric Freedman
Eric Freedman is Knight Chair, director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and a professor in the School of Journalism. As director of MSU’s Capital News Service, he also writes and edits environmental news stories for the center’s Great Lakes Echo and carries Echo stories to its 25+ member publications across Michigan. He has headed the J-School’s Australia Media, Environment, Culture & Tourism study abroad program and MSU’s Scotland media and environment Freshman Seminar Abroad. As a Fulbright Scholar, he co-developed and taught the first university-level course on environmental and science journalism in Uzbekistan, and he conducts research about environmental journalism and coverage of environmental issues in the former Soviet Union. In fall 2018, he is conducting research and teaching about environmental journalism at Caucasus University in the Republic of Georgia. As a journalist, his interests include public lands, habitat and diversity, invasive species, eco-tourism, forests, international transborder environmental problems, fisheries, environmental enforcement and archaeology. His books include “Biodiversity, Conservation and Environmental Management in the Great Lakes Basin,” “Critical Perspectives on Journalistic Beliefs and Actions: Global Experiences,” “Environmental Crises in Central Asia: From Steppes to Seas, from Deserts to Glaciers,” “On the Water, Michigan” and “Great Lakes, Great National Forests: A Recreational Guide.” During his 20-year newspaper reporting career he covered public affairs and legal affairs in New York and Michigan, winning a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a legislative corruption scandal.
Professor Bruno Takahashi
Bruno Takahashi, Ph.D.serves as the Brandt Endowed Professor of Environmental Communication at Michigan State University. He holds a joint appointment in the School of Journalism and AgBioResearch and serves as the Research Director at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Takahashi’s bachelor’s degree in communication is from Universidad de Lima, Perú, and my M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental science (with a specialization in environmental communication and participatory processes) from SUNY ESF, USA. His current research focuses on news coverage of environmental issues, environmental journalism practices in Latin America and U.S. Latino media, and identity in science communication. Dr. Takahashi was born and raised in Lima, Perú. He moved to the USA to pursue graduate school. It was not in the original plan to become a professor in the USA, but here he is and loving it. Michigan and Michigan State University are amazing places to live and work. Despite being away from his roots and family, most of his scholarship engages with the communication of environmental issues in Latin America. This includes researching complex networks of actors, media, and communication processes, all embedded in post-colonial and social and environmental justice dynamics. He enjoys collaborative work, which has allowed him to meet, visit, and work with amazing colleagues and students from around the world. Takahashi has extensive experience and participation in environmental communication scholarship. He currently serves as an elected board member of the International Environmental Communication Association (IECA), which he helped to establish as a founding member. He was also vice chair and chair of the Environmental Communication division of the International Communication Association (ICA). His editorial experience includes five years as an associate editor for the journal Environmental Communication, where he remains active on the editorial board. He regularly attends the conferences of IECA, ICA, the Association of Education and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ). Phone: 517- 432-2454; email: btakahas@msu.edu
Barb Miller
Barb Miller has been the Knight Center’s administrative assistant since 1995. She received the Jack Breslin Distinguished Staff Award in 2002, and the 2022 Communication Arts and Science Staff Impact Award – both in recognition of her contributions to the Knight Center and the college. She has broad knowledge of Knight Center programs and projects and is an excellent place to start with questions. Contact her at mille384@msu.edu or 517-432-1415.
David Poulson
David Poulson served as the senior associate director (emeritus) of MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. He joined the center in 2003 after more than two decades as a professional reporter and editor, most of it covering the environment. For 12 years he was the environment reporter at the capital bureau of Michigan’s Booth Newspaper chain. He taught environmental, investigative, public affairs and data analysis reporting, and organized workshops in the U.S. and abroad to help journalists better report on the environment and researchers better explain their work. He has built three online environmental news servies, including the center’s Great Lakes Echo and The Food Fix at MSU’s Global Center for Food Systems Innovation.