Advisory Board
Rob Curley
Mr. Curley leads one of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning Web development teams in the world. Curley is director of New Media and Convergence for The World Company and leader of World Online, the Internet division of the Lawrence Journal-World. In this role he leads the Kansas-based media company's converged operations for the combined news gathering staffs of the Lawrence Journal-World, 6News television and World Online.
Lorrie Grant
Ms. Grant is a freelance reporter who spent eight years as a retail reporter for the Money section of USA Today. She has been with the Gannett-owned paper since 1997. In 1998 she was among a select number of journalists who participated in the Case Media Fellowship on Business Reporting at Vanderbilt University. She started her reporting career in 1988 at Reuters. While at Reuters she covered fincnaial news and named bureau chief in Charlotte, N.C.
Scott Simon
Simon is host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday, and has won many major awards in broadcasting including the Peabody Award for Radio Essays. His book, Home and Away; Memoir of a Fan (2000), was cited as one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and The Washington Post.
'The future of journalism is no less than the future of liberty in this country. Bringing reliable and interesting information to masses of people is what makes democracy work. We confront a challenge in a time of so many new technologies to be certain that ethics, fair play, and a sense of responsibility to the public don't get left behind with carbon paper, typewrites, and audio and video tape. That is why I am pleased to join the New Century Journalism Advisory Board at Belmont University.'
'The Belmont program attracted my attention when it included ethics as a cornerstone of the journalism program. If journalists have not learned anything in the last year, it should be that it is not enough to be a skilled writer if you do not have strong ethics.'
Michelle Williams
A 1989 graduate of Belmont, Ms. Williams is the Associated Press Chief of Bureau for Arizona and New Mexico. Michelle began her AP career in 1989 as an editorial assistant in Nashville. She advanced to a reporting position and in 1991 moved to Milwaukee, where she covered the arrest and trial of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. She later served as a correspondent in Chattanooga, Tenn., supervisory correspondent in San Diego, and news editor for Tennessee before moving to Texas as news editor in 2003. She was promoted to assistant chief of bureau for Texas in 2006.
Brice Minnigh
Mr. Minnigh is a 1993 graduate, former editor of the Belmont Vision newspaper and the program’s first Fulbright Scholar. He is now a full-time adventure travel writer and award-winning photographer, having recently published The Rough Guide to Taiwan. He also studies at the Moscow State School of Journalism in Russia’s capital. His journeys then took him to Beijing where he spent several years reporting for China Day, the capital’s English language daily newspaper. His next stop was Hong Kong, where he served as a financial writer for the South China Morning Post. In Hong Kong he also was published in regional magazines and later was appointed Asian-Pacific Bureau Chief a Reuters-owned financial news service. Brice returned stateside in 2007 to take on freelance writing and photography full time.
