Chasing the future: Chase Davis to deliver May 2026 commencement address
COLUMBIA, Mo. (May 4, 2026) — Chase Davis, BJ ’06, will return to the Missouri School of Journalism in May to deliver the commencement address to the newest class of graduates.
Twenty years after earning his degree, the veteran journalist, innovator and entrepreneur will share his thoughts with a new generation of journalists and strategic communicators preparing to enter the job market.
“It’s an honor to welcome Chase back to campus,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “As an entrepreneur who unites emerging technology and journalistic ethics, his experience can offer students a roadmap for navigating a rapidly changing industry with conviction and purpose.”
“I focus on helping local news organizations basically do cool things with emerging technologies in a way that aligns with journalistic standards and values. It’s something I had been thinking about launching for a number of years.”
Chase Davis
Davis has something in common with the students leaving school to start their careers; last year, he took a leap of his own, leaving his position as head of the AI lab at the Minnesota Star Tribune to start his own AI, data science and software development consultancy — Local Angle — that helps newsrooms take advantage of cutting-edge digital advancements.
“I focus on helping local news organizations basically do cool things with emerging technologies in a way that aligns with journalistic standards and values,” Davis said. “It’s something I had been thinking about launching for a number of years.”
The School of Journalism’s curriculum prizes cross-training across a number of mediums and methods of storytelling — something Davis has known from both the student and instructor perspectives, as he taught for more than seven years at the School of Journalism as an adjunct professor — and he points to his adaptability as one reason for the success of his entrepreneurial career shift. At the same time, he also recognizes a more foundational base of knowledge that has stayed with him since his time at the School.
“A lot of people are out there trying to create businesses around helping organizations navigate AI and emerging technologies, but the particulars of how that applies to news are very specific,” Davis said. “I think approaching it with the ethical grounding and the true understanding of the mission of what we’re trying to accomplish in this industry has helped me set myself apart. It’s the rootedness that comes from the fundamentals and ethics that the School taught that have stuck with me the whole way through.”
“A lot of people are out there trying to create businesses around helping organizations navigate AI and emerging technologies, but the particulars of how that applies to news are very specific. I think approaching it with the ethical grounding and the true understanding of the mission of what we’re trying to accomplish in this industry has helped me set myself apart.”
Chase Davis
Those principles have served him throughout a consistent stream of independent consulting work alongside tenures at The Center for Investigative Reporting, The New York Times and the Star Tribune, where he worked alongside several School of Journalism graduates building careers in the emerging field of news product management.
But it’s his move to starting his own full-time consultancy that provides the most fodder for advice to up-and-coming graduates. He recalled being inspired by his wife’s words of wisdom after her stint in freelancing, words that echoed his own experience finding his way as an entrepreneur. Now, he hopes students can seize some of that same inspiration.
“What she said was that once you’re able to know that you can make it work under any circumstance and you’re responsible for yourself, then all of a sudden the anxieties that careers might present to you have just a little bit less power,” he said. “If you have enough confidence in yourself that you can create something, then you’re not going to be the person who stays in a job they hate for 10 years or makes ethical compromises to retain security. It’s about having that confidence that can allow you to operate from your values without feeling the fear that you otherwise might.”
The School of Journalism’s commencement ceremony will take place at Mizzou Arena on Friday, May 15, at 7 p.m.
Updated: May 6, 2026