TERESA ALLEN
Professor of Journalism
Department of Journalism
California Polytechnic State University
::Download MS Word Teresa Allen Vitae::

Current Research and Interests:
Media Ethics; Online Journalism, In-Depth Reporting & Writing; Women and Crime

EDUCATION
MASTER OF ARTS in English (Creative Writing), University of Colorado at Boulder, Spring 1993
BACHELOR OF ARTS in English literature, University of Washington at Seattle, 1976.

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ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Cal Poly State University
Department of Journalism
Professor
2001-Present

Teaching specialties include media ethics, in-depth writing and reporting, online journalism; crime reporting.

Courses Taught
Media Ethics, Feature Writing, Contemporary Issues, Computer-Assisted Reporting, Copy Editing, Beginning and Advanced Reporting, Mustang Daily

BOSTON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM
Associate Professor
1994-2001

Teaching specialties include beginning and in-depth reporting and writing for both graduate and undergraduate students; computer-assisted research, crime reporting; magazine writing.

Courses Taught
Graduate Seminar Research Methods (CAR, Internet, and old-fashioned-hitting the-streets-legwork)
Magazine Writing and Production
Special Studies: Women and Crime
"Crime and Punishment"
History and Principles of Journalism
Beginning and Advanced Newspaper Reporting and Writing

BOSTON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM
Founder, Director
Advanced Journalism Studies
Fall 1996-Fall 1998

Advanced Journalism Studies (AJS) allows graduate students to stay in the program for an additional third semester to "specialize" in a reporting concentration. As the founding director, I have been involved from the ground up, overseeing all steps from initial program content and design, to marketing strategies (designing and promoting, directing our program web page, campus-wide faculty networking, student recruitment, internship placement, and scholarship allotment). I also functioned as a mentor and course advisor to each of our AJS students.

Univercidad UPI
Department of Journalism
Lima, Peru
Spring 1995

Taught a seminar on media ethics to Peruvian media specialists from both print and broadcast companies in Lima.

METROPOLITAN COLLEGE
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Associate Professor
Spring 1994

Taught reporting and writing techniques to maximum-security inmates at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Framingham, the state prison for women.

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER
DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION
Instructor
1992-1994

Assigned to teach beginning reporting and writing and in-depth reporting to journalism students. Focus was on computer assistedreporting, research, in-depth project work, source development, excellent writing. Coordinated three sections of this second-level reporting class where students study and polish news writing skills.      

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER
SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION
Writing Coach/Adviser, The Campus Press
Assignment: Fall, Spring 1994

SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM
Instructor
Summer, 1993

Taught beginning reporting and writing techniques to undergraduate journalism students.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
USA-TODAY
Senior Writer
March 1982 to July 1991

Projects writer, specializing in crime and capital punishment issues and the day-to-day coverage of  San Quentin Prison; general assignment reporter; section editor overseeing five reporters; city government reporter; on loan to Gannett News Service as war correspondent in Central America and other national writing projects; on loan to USA-TODAY; special assignments editor (to write newspaper ethics policy, organize newsroom writing workshops).

I joined the staff of the Marin newspaper in March 1982 as a beat reporter, covering schools and city government. In subsequent years I was assigned to a variety of reporting and editing tasks. During my last five years on staff, I worked primarily on special projects, often focusing on crime and prison issues. In March 1987 I was sent to Central America by Gannett News Service to report on the war between the Sandinistas and the U.S.-backed Contra. In the spring of 1988, I was “loaned” to Gannett News Service for several months to co-write a national project on murder. In August 1989 I was granted a four-month leave from my newspaper to work for USA-TODAY and Gannett News Service on the East Coast. I returned to my newspaper in January 1990.

In August 1991, I resigned from the Marin Independent Journal,with the title of Senior Writer, to enter graduate
school at the University of Colorado. Some high points of my eight years with Gannett Co. include a three-hour jail house interview with mass-murderer Charles Manson (the first he had agreed to in a decade); an investigative series called Addicted to Murder that focused on the nation's serial killers and why they kill; an in-depth look at the life of a young man who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and lived to tell about it (I later rewrote He Leaped and Lived for the May 1987 edition of People Magazine); and the short period of time spent on the firing line of the Nicaraguan-Honduran border from which came a special section on the strife in Central America entitled: The Human Side of War. The series was published in many Gannett newspapers across the country.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
San Jose, California
Staff Reporter
November 1980 to March 1982

Joined the staff as a news-feature reporter. Also covered city government in the Northern California communities of Palo Alto and Mountain View; education news and trends at Stanford University; and special projects. co-wrote award-winning series on mentally ill patients at Agnew State Hospital, many of whom were turned out when the facility changed its focus to the physically handicapped. One story featured the life of two hospital "graduates" who had lived at Agnew all their lives. They married and started a life together. Another story in the series profiled the most problematic unit in the hospital. Twice during the story research the reporter and photographer were asked to leave while violently erupting patients were sedated and strapped face down onto their beds

BELLINGHAM HERALD
Bellingham, Washington
Staff Reporter
June 1979 to October 1980

Education reporting; features; special projects. co-wrote award winning series on the fraudulence and abuses of a secluded residential program for troubled adolescents. Using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain such documents as state and federal tax returns and articles of incorporation, we were able to prove that program money were being diverted into the personal accounts of the school's directors. After months of research, we found and interviewed graduates of the program who confirmed hearsay information about the school's abusive methods of controlling its students. Our investigation ultimately led to the school's demise.

DAILY WORLD
Aberdeen, Washington
Staff Reporter
February 1978 to May 1979

Hired as the education beat reporter to produce news and feature stories for three local school districts, and to cover the nearby Quinault Indian Reservation. Also wrote feature stories that focused on the environment and produced special projects. Won the Associated Press monthly contest award for a story on local lumber companies that hired hunters to shoot and kill mother bears and their cubs before they could eat the spring growth on their trees. We (a staff photographer and I) spent 24 hours with a professional bear hunter who mercilessly ran down a cub with a pack of trained dogs, treed it, then shot it out of a 100-foot-high redwood.

SEATTLE TIMES
Seattle, Washington
Summer internship
June 1977 to September 1977

General assignment, news-features for the metropolitan desk. Published stories that ranged from meeting coverage to self-generated ideas for features. Produced news-feature project on the rampant alcoholism among American Indian women on a nearby reservation. One story focused on a single mother and her five children who lived in a cardboard shack and bathed in a muddy stream. Public outcry -- and support -- was so great following the publication of this story that the management for the Seattle Times set up a trust fund and collected enough money to build a new home for the family.

EVERETT HERALD
Everett, Washington
Summer internship
June 1976 to September 1976

General assignment, news-features, spot news. Assigned to both the metropolitan desk and the feature department. Emphasis on self-generated story ideas. Published stories that ranged from spot news police stories to a lengthy series on the Monroe Reformatory -- a locked, medium custody prison. One story in the prison series included an inside look at gang and drug activity as seen through the eyes of the inmates.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Seattle, Washington
Arts and Entertainment Writer
June 1975 to September 1975

Assigned to the Arts and Entertainment Department. Wrote theater and dance reviews, interviews of arts and entertainment personalities passing through Seattle; feature stories.

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PROFESSIONAL AWARDS

BEST OF GANNETT Outstanding Achievement Award for Writing in 1987

(Each year Gannett Company appoints a panel of independent judges from both the academic and professional arenas to select an outstanding writer and reporter from its 90-some newspapers across the country. This top award carries with it a cash prize of around $5,000.)

            For a collection of stories including a two-part series on convicted mass murderer. Charles Manson Part I of the Mystique of Manson was written following a three-hour interview with Manson at San Quentin Prison and several months of written correspondence. It was the first time in a decade that Manson had agreed to talk to the media. Part II focused on a group of Manson followers -- both old and new -- whom lived in an isolated region of Northern California and continued to worship Manson and visit him at San Quentin Prison.
            Also included in the collection was From Riches to Rags, the story of a Bay Area stockbroker turned street person after losing all of his family money and self respect during a two-hour whipsaw on the Pacific Stock Exchange. The story followed his life in retrospect -- from the day he was found dead in a blackberry bramble, to his years on the street, his prep school days, and finally back to his idyllic and pampered childhood on the East Coast.
            The third story included in the winning collection, He Leaped and Lived, profiled the life of Kenneth Baldwin, a man in his early 30s from Tracey, California, who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in an attempt to end his life. Instead, he survived with few injuries and a compelling need to talk about the experience. The story began the day he almost died, starting with his vivid memory of vaulting over the guard rail and pushing off from the bridge. The moment his fingertips left the bridge, Baldwin recalled, "I knew I had made a big mistake." He Leaped and Lived was rewritten and published under my byline in the May 1987 edition of People Magazine.

BEST OF GANNETT Outstanding Achievement Award for Writing in 1985

For Murder or Madness, a two-part story on a Denny's fry cook named Mark McDermand who in 1980 killed his mother and brother and was sentenced to life without parole at San Quentin Prison. The McDermand story was the result of months of work that included conversations and letters between McDermand and myself, as well as a review of court documents and interviews with friends and neighbors of the family. McDermand, a bright and articulate man who asked to be put to death rather than live his life out behind bars, told me during the research for this story that the destruction of his family was inevitable "It was never a question of why -- but when. We just didn't t know which of the three of us would kill the other two," he said. McDermand has since died in prison.

BEST OF GANNETT/1988
Third Place Special Writing
A Collection of Work

ASSOCIATED PRESS/1987
Second Place/Feature Writing
Mystique of Manson

BEST OF GANNETT/1987
First Place Feature Writing Category
A Collection of Work

ASSOCIATED PRESS/1986
Second Place/Feature Writing
He Leaped and Lived

BEST OF GANNETT/1985
Second Place Feature Category
Murder or Madness

CALIFORNIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION'S BETTER NEWSPAPER CONTEST/1983
Best Writing Award, First Place, for The Frenzy of Lambing, a story about the life of a West Marin sheep rancher.

STANDING ACADEMIC COMMITTEES/
CONFERENCES

2005-Present
Status on the Commission of Women
CLA representative

Fall 2006
Faculty Accreditation Coordinator
Dean Appointment

Fall 2006
University Committee Leaves/Sabbaticals
Dept. of Journalism representative

2003-2004
University Committees:
Honors Council/Representative for CLA
Executive Board/California Faculty Association
(editor, Right To Action)

Faculty Committees:
Journalism Curriculum Committee

2006-Department RPT Committees

2005-Department RPT Committee

2002-2003
Faculty Chair, Student Fee Committee
Member, Journalism Curriculum Committee
Chair, Journalism Convergence Committee

Member, Faculty Search Committee
-Department Chair
-Tenure-Track Broadcast
-2-year Lecturer/Public Relations

Discussion Leader
Cal Poly Shared Reading Program
Fall 2003

Publication
2004
“Student Sex Columns”, Cover, College Media Review, “Spring 2004
“Not Even A Pencil” Quill, (accepted for November 2004 publication)
Featured Op-Ed “Voices” The Tribune, Sept. 6

2003
“Walking a Thin Line: How far should journalists go to protect at-risk sources?” Cover story, Quill  February  2003
 “Convict Culture” published conference proceedings, (online and paper) Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, January 2003.

BOOK (Non-Fiction)

"Honey, This Ain't No Country Club: Women Doing Hard Time" My book on the dramatic changes taking place for women behind bars will be published by Columbia University Press. The book, peer reviewed by academics in criminology and sociology, was written for both scholarly and mainstream readership. Pending 2005 publication. Manuscript deadline to publisher, Fall 2005

Conferences/Invited Panels

College Media Advisers-National Conference
Invited Panelists-Grading Polices
March 2006

Investigative Reporters & Editors-National Conference
June 2005
Denver, Colorado

Seminar Participant, “The Intersection of Morality and Ethics,” Poynter Institute (for Media Studies)
Florida/April 2004

Herb Kamm Journalism Panel
“The Good, the Bad and Medialand
March 11, 2004

2003
Seminar Participant, “Teaching About Emotional Trauma,” sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma,
USC/Los Angeles
Sept. 26-27 2003

Invited Speaker, National College Newspaper Convention “Ethics in the Newsroom: Reporters, Photographers, Editors”
Seattle/March 6-9 2003

National Student Newspaper Contest Judge, National College Newspaper Convention,
Seattle/March 6-9 2003

Invited Seminar Leader, Journalism Association of Community Colleges, “Up Against Deadline: Teaching Students Ethical Responsibility”
Morro Bay/Feb. 28-March 2003

Presenter, book-in-progress, “Honey this Ain’t No Country Club
Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities
Honnolulu, Hawaii/January 12-15 2003

2002
Media Law Symposium
Loyola University
Fall 2002

Guest Lecturer, Faculty Lecture Series
Women’s Studies Department
May 2002

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Committte Work/Conferences-Boston University

Academic Affairs Standing Committee
Curriculum Standing Committee
1994-97

Faculty representative
Search Committee Member (for new department chair)
Spring/Summer 1995

The Poynter Writing Seminars/Discussion Leader
Co-Sponsored with the Hartford Courant

Fellow
Freedom Forum
Seminar on "new media" for journalism educators
March 2000

The Poynter Institute of Media Studies
Seminar participant
"The Future Of Journalism Writing"
January 1997

Adviser, Society of Professional Journalists
Boston University chapter
1994-1997

NCAR (National Computer Assisted Reporting)
Short course
Spring 1995

Publication

Profile of  Barbara Graham (Executed at San Quentin Prison, 1955)
"Encyclopedia of Women and Crime"
Oryx Press, 2000.

Voice From Death Row
"America Now" Short Reading from Recent Periodicals
1998

"Andrea Hicks-Jackson: A Voice From Death Row"
 Grand Street Magazine, 1997