Sam Fulwood III is dean of American University’s School of Communication (SOC) and a prominent journalist, public policy analyst and author, whose work addresses key issues of media influences on American life. He has written and lectured extensively across the United States and internationally on U.S. race relations, data-driven journalism, and the intersections of media, technology and democracy.

In addition to his work at SOC, Fulwood remains nonresident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he was a senior fellow and vice president for race and equity programming prior to joining American University. He was also the former director and founder of American Progress’ Leadership Institute, a program to assist with the advancement of people of color in public policy.

Earlier in his career, Fulwood was a metro columnist at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, the last stop in a nearly three-decade journalism career that featured posts at several metropolitan newspapers. During the 1990s, he was a national correspondent in the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Los Angeles Times, where he contributed to the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. He has also worked as a business editor and state political editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; as an assistant city editor, business reporter, editorial writer, and Johannesburg, South Africa, bureau correspondent for the Baltimore Sun; and as a police, business, and sports reporter at The Charlotte Observer.

Fulwood is the author of two books: Waking from the Dream: My Life in the Black Middle Class (Anchor, 1996) and Full of It: Strong Words and Fresh Thinking for Cleveland (Gray & Company, 2004). Fulwood earned a Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Talk at MCB Hack:
Winning with Data: Tracking Insurrection to the Pulitzer Prize
Sam Fulwood III will share how a team of American University students created and maintained a data base to track the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. Their efforts contributed to The Washington Post winning the 2022 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal. The series of stories illustrate the importance of data to drive explanatory and public interest journalism.