Dr. Fee joined the School Journalism and Mass Communication in July 2000 after three years as the inaugural Knight Professor of Editing in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. He was a journalist in daily newspapers for more than 30 years, most recently with Gannett Rochester (NY) Newspapers (1976 to 1995), where he was a copy desk chief for 15 years. He has worked in virtually every newsroom reporting assignment; as a photojournalist, and as a suburban editor, city editor and news editor. He was editor-in-chief of The Post-Journal in Jamestown, NY, from 1972 to 1976. In 1967-69, Dr. Fee was an Army information specialist, and spent a year in Vietnam as a reporter-photographer and editor on several Army publications.

In addition to his newspaper work, Dr. Fee taught journalism part time at the college level for more than 10 years in the Rochester area, including the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology and Roberts Wesleyan College, and at UNC-Chapel Hill. He also has organized and taught in many continuing-education programs for journalists and has conducted workshops at a number of newspapers throughout the United States.

Early in 1995, Dr. Fee was selected as one of the first four Freedom Forum Doctoral Fellows in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. This unique program was created at Carolina to draw highly qualified professional journalists into the classroom by enabling them to complete accelerated doctoral studies in the School.

His research interests include journalism history, with a focus on antebellum U.S. newspapers; Frederick Douglass and his North Star; newsroom management; trends in American journalism; and news accuracy. His research has been presented regularly at the annual conferences of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA) and published in Newspaper Research Journal, American Journalism, Journalism History and Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. He reviews frequently for NRJ, AJ, and the Atlanta Review of Journalism History.

Dr. Fee is in his second three-year term on AEJMC’s elected Standing Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility, and he has been resolutions chair of AEJMC since 2004. In 2006 he concluded two years as research co-chair of the AEJMC Newspaper Division, of which he also has been a division head, vice head and program chair, and teaching chair.

Besides AEJMC, his memberships include the American Journalism Historians Association, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Copy Editors Society.

Dr. Fee was director of the Master of Arts program in the School from July 2005 to June 2007; acting coordinator of the program from January 2005 to June 2005; and master’s program adviser from September 2002 to June 2005. He also was a member of the School’s Graduate Admissions Committee from September 2000 to June 2007 and has been a member of the Minority Activities Committee since September 2000. He is in his fourth year on the School’s Administrative Board, a Chancellor’s appointment.

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