Maud Beelman, a professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, was the founding director and executive editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University and currently serves as the Center’s collaborations editor. She also co-administers the Roy W. Howard fellowship program. During her leadership of the Howard Center, its student journalists produced seven national investigations that won numerous professional or collegiate journalism awards.
Beelman has been a domestic, foreign and war correspondent and, for nearly three decades, an investigative editor. She has worked across the media spectrum, from large international news organizations to online, nonprofit news outlets. She was the founding director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), launched in 1997 as the world’s first cross-border investigative reporting collaborative. Beelman also served as the U.S. Investigations Editor for The Associated Press and the deputy managing editor for investigations at The Dallas Morning News. As a correspondent, Beelman reported from across the U.S., Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East, covering the post-Gulf War I period in Iraq and Iran and the years-long war in the former Yugoslavia. Her work has been honored with numerous journalism awards, including the George Polk, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, Online News Association and the Overseas Press Club, to name a few.
A native of New Orleans, Beelman has participated in or led multiple cross-newsroom collaborations and has helped train journalists from the United States, Central America, Europe and Australia. She is a longtime member of IRE, was an Alicia Patterson fellow and served many years on the Alicia Patterson Foundation board of directors, including as board vice president. She also serves on the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network Advisory Council and the Board of Directors of the Fund for Investigative Journalism.