EDMUND B. LAMBETH established and directed several of the Missouri School of Journalism’s stalwart programs. He was the founding director of the Washington Reporting Program in 1968, where he supervised students’ reporting projects for newspapers, television, radio and magazines for 10 years. Lambeth left the School in 1978 to serve as a professor of journalism at Indiana University and subsequently the director of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism. In 1987, Lambeth returned to Missouri as associate dean for graduate studies and research. While in this post, he oversaw the growing work at the Stephenson Research Center and Media Research Bureau. During the two and one-half years he served as director of The Center on Religion & the Professions (2004-2006), the Center was awarded a $1.5 million renewal grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to advance religious literacy in the professions and to conduct research to enhance the news media’s coverage of religion and public life. The Center is one of the Pew Trusts’ 10 Centers of Excellence. CORP also is an affiliate of the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

His books, Committed Journalism: An Ethic for the Profession and Assessing Public Journalism (edited with Phil Meyer and Esther Thorson) reflect his career interests in public affairs reporting, ethics, media criticism and the history of journalism.

Lambeth has received the highest recognitions for his many contributions to journalism. He was named a Congressional Fellow and a Nieman Fellow, and he won the Thomas Jefferson Award from the University of Missouri. Lambeth was presented the Scholarly Excellence Award by the Board of Curators for the best faculty book produced by the University of Missouri Press in 1998. His book, Assessing Public Journalism, combined methods of social science and the humanities to explore the new movement in American journalism.

Lambeth introduced key courses into the School’s curriculum, including journalism and democracy, critical analysis of mass media, international issues reporting, and religion reporting and writing. In 1984 he originated a national workshop for journalism educators on the teaching of ethics in journalism, a program he led for 20 years. Lambeth served as a Fulbright Scholar in Israel in 1997-98 and in Hungary 2001-02, and since 1988 he has lectured on journalism, media ethics and public affairs reporting in 17 countries. He joined MU in DC after serving as a Washington correspondent with Gannett Newspapers and earlier reporting positions with the Binghamton (N.Y.) Press and the Milwaukee Journal.