Larry Persily chosen as UAA's new Atwood Chair of Journalism
by Jess |
2019-2020 UAA Atwood Chair of Journalism Larry Persily. (Photo by James Evans / University of Alaska Anchorage)
UAA's Department of Journalism and Public Communication (JPC) has announced that Larry Persily will serve as the new Atwood Chair of Journalism.
Persily brings almost 50 years of journalism and public policy experience to his new position as the Atwood Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage for the 2019-2020 school year.
His journalism career began in 1969 as a college newspaper reporter and continued for the next 30 years. Although he took leave from the profession periodically during the past two decades to work on public policy in federal, state and municipal government, he has returned of late to journalism to help out at the Chilkat Valley News in Haines, the Nome Nugget, Peninsula Clarion in Kenai, and writing for the Alaska Journal of Commerce on topics of critical concern to Alaskans. He also will take over as owner/publisher of The Skagway News on April 1 as he looks to help Alaska's smaller newspapers.
Persily's wealth of knowledge and experience in natural resource and budgetary issues will serve JPC students and the UAA community well.
"My work in government will be beneficial to helping students understand not just the policy issues and how to report on them," Persily said, "but how to cultivate sources, conduct research and look for the stories that seldom are in plain sight."
"I want students to learn how to find a fact, how to separate facts from fiction - and to understand the importance of their work."
Persily brings a wide diversity of experience to the Atwood Chair and is looking forward to meeting the Chair's purpose of advancing quality journalism in Alaska.
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