Bio

Howard Schneider is the Founding Dean of the School of Journalism. He spearheaded the team that developed the proposal for SUNY’s first, and still only, journalism school in 2006. For more than 35 years, Schneider was a reporter and editor at Newsday. For more than 18 of those years, he was managing editor and then editor. Under his tenure, the newspaper won eight Pulitzer Prizes. Newsday was also among the first newspapers in the country to create news websites. At Stony Brook, Schneider helped develop the nation’s first course in News Literacy, which is designed to teach students across all disciplines how to become more discerning news consumers. A version of the course has subsequently spread to universities across the country and overseas. He is Executive Director of the school’s Center for News Literacy. He also collaborated with the actor, writer and science advocate Alan Alda to launch what is now the school’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. The Center trains current and future scientists to communicate more effectively with the public. Schneider began his teaching career at Stony Brook as an adjunct professor from 1980-1983. Previously, he had been an adjunct professor of journalism at Queens College in 1979. Schneider was the recipient in 2012 of the DeWitt Reddick Award for Public Communications and Journalism Education granted by the University of Texas. In 2003, he was the recipient of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Alumnus Award (M.S. ’67). He has been a member of the Pulitzer Prize judging panel three times. He earned his B.A. at Syracuse University in Journalism and Psychology (’66).