Karen Bordeleau

Karen Bordeleau is the director of Career and Professional Development and a visiting professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. 

As the career director, Bordeleau supervises a team that assists students with internship placements, promotes job opportunities for both students and alumni, and organizes events and recruiter fairs. She is the professor of record for Cronkite's three internship courses.

As a visiting professor, Bordeleau has developed and taught the 8-credit bootcamp for the master’s in investigative journalism degree program through the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism. She currently teaches the internship courses at Cronkite.

Bordeleau is the retired executive editor/senior vice president of The Providence Journal and is the first and only woman in The Journal’s 192-year history to hold the top editor’s position. She is responsible for shifting the newsroom into a “story-first” digital operation and is also credited with swinging open the proverbial doors of The Providence Journal by introducing many audience engagement initiatives -- among them the award-winning Publick Occurrences forums to promote civil discourse on complex topics. Under her leadership, The Journal won numerous state, regional and national reporting awards. The news organization was named a  Pulitzer Prize finalist in Public Service for the Forged by Fire series in 2004, which Bordeleau co-edited.

In 2014, Bordeleau was honored with the Yankee Quill -- the highest individual journalism honor in New England -- which recognizes a lifetime contribution of excellence in the field. In 2016, she was presented with the Judith Brown Spirit of Journalism Award, given annually to one woman who has made a significant impact on journalism in New England. In 2013, she was named one of the "Top 10 Women to Watch in the U.S. Media" by Editor & Publisher magazine. She has also been named one of Rhode Island’s Most Powerful Women by Rhode Island Monthly.

Bordeleau has organized and/or participated in many journalist exchange programs including those with Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Kenya. The mission of these exchanges and workshops is to share the principles of ethical and responsible journalism in countries with fledgling democracies and/or restrictive press laws. She has also taught news management, advanced reporting, social media and ethics courses in Pakistan and Kenya. 

Bordeleau is president of the board of directors of the New England First Amendment Coalition, and is past president of both the New England Associated Press News Executives Association and the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. She served as a Pulitzer Prize juror in 2015 and 2016.

Bordeleau has taught journalism for 25 years at institutions of higher education including Arizona State University, Emerson College, Northeastern University, the University of Rhode Island and Bryant University. Courses include advanced and public affairs reporting, feature writing, journalism ethics, mass media, and editing and design. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism cum laude from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in political science summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island. She was a Sulzberger fellow at Columbia University in 2011.