Lawrence Pintak, PhD is an award-winning journalist, academic leader, and media development expert who has reported from four continents and led projects aimed at bolstering journalistic professionalism and independence and improving journalism education in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and the Caucasus. He served as dean of the Graduate School of Media and Communications at The Aga Khan University in East Africa, founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, helped establish Pakistan’s Centre for Excellence in Journalism, and directed the Arab world’s only professionally focused journalism master’s degree in the years leading up to the Arab Spring. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, Pintak is the author of five books at the intersection of media, religion, democracy, and international relations. He was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2017 for “extraordinary service to the profession of journalism” around the world and was recipient of both the Senior Scholar award from the Association of Journalism and Mass Communications Educators (AEJMC) and the inaugural Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award from the AEJMC’s Religion and Media Interest Group. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies.