“…gifted teacher…commands the classroom…engaged and passionate…explains complex ideas in a clear way…"

It’s a powerful combination in the classroom, in person or online: My decades of journalism experience at some of the country’s leading news outlets, including The Miami Herald, NBCNews.com, CNN.com and Politico, coupled with years of successfully teaching news reporting, writing and media at institutions of higher education, in all modalities. During the 2022 Spring semester, I served as an instructor at the University of Florida in Gainesville and Baruch College, CUNY, in New York, both remotely, and this summer I am teaching a course in political journalism at Florida International University in Miami.

Most recently in journalism, I pitched in during 2021 as the interim Business Editor at The Miami Herald, supervising the outlet’s print and digital coverage of real estate, the south Florida economy, tourism and tech.

Prior to that, I served as the Assistant Managing Editor for Politics at NBCNews.com. In my role as leader of NBC’s national digital coverage of government, politics and campaigns, I directed teams of reporters and editors in New York City and Washington, D.C., in coverage of the 2018 congressional midterm elections, 2020 presidential campaign, White House, Congress, Supreme Court and public policy. Among my responsibilities leading a 20-person core team were supervising breaking news, news-of-day, enterprise and long-form multi-media special projects.

Before joining NBC in 2017, I held senior political digital editing positions at CNN.com, Politico, The New York Daily News and The New York Post. I worked with the most advanced online news tools available in the areas of analytics, SEO, blogging platforms, data graphics and social media.

I care deeply about both the news business and higher education. I bring real-world journalism with me into every class, along with a deep interest in my students and their progress.

Over 11 semesters since 2014 at Baruch College in New York City, part of the City University of New York system, I have taught introductory courses in news reporting/writing, a special topics elective on the 2018 midterm congressional elections and, in 2021, a required 10-week seminar for freshman, helping them to make the transition from high school to college. Over the last two years, I have taught fully online, mastering the art of the “Zoom classroom." I will be returning to Baruch in the Fall 2022 semester.

As an Assistant Adjunct Professor, my responsibilities for these courses included designing syllabi from scratch, formulating in-class and home assignments, selecting informative readings, recruiting guest speakers  and lecturing on the building-block concepts of journalism, such as what is news, how to interview, fact checking and detecting fake news, writing sharp ledes, concepts of story structure and feature writing, ethical practices and much more.

Prior to 2021 and the Covid pandemic, the hybrid in-person/online courses combined weekly classroom instruction with remote learning components, such as active blogs and lively discussion boards, along with varied research projects and challenging field reporting assignments.

At the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, where I will be returning for the Fall semester in 2022, I work as an adjunct instructor on “Fresh Take Florida,” a news service of the college focusing on Florida state government and politics. Stories in this capstone course are written by award-winning student journalists under the direction of CJC faculty/staff and published by media outlets around the state, including The Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times, FloridaPolitics and many others.

At Florida International University, over a 12-week semester in the summer of 2022, I am teaching an asynchronous special topics course, “An introduction to political journalism," which covers polling, the midterms and 2024 presidential election, racial, identity and “culture war" issues, the impact of Trump, bias in political reporting and much more. The course, offered by FIU’s School of Communication + Journalism, has an emphasis on diversity issues.

Currently residing in Miami, I lived and worked for many years in New York, the most diverse large city in the U.S., and, at Baruch, I am teaching at one of the most diverse universities in the country.

Baruch ranked 13th out of nearly 800 public and private institutions in the diversity of its student body, according to the 2021 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings.  The makeup of my classes in an urban setting has reflected that diversity, with students of many different backgrounds, and I embrace DEI with a teaching approach of understanding, respect and fairness.

Recently, Baruch also ranked #1 in the Northeast for value, according to The Princeton Review, which takes into account academics, cost and career prospects. And the college jumped 110 points in the 2021 “America’s Best Colleges” ranking by Forbes, placing #64 nationwide. Among public schools, Baruch placed #24, a 25-point rise.

I critique and grade hundreds of assignments each semester (I believe the best way to learn journalism is by doing, again and again — and getting feedback), hold office hours, and have participated in journalism department activities, panel discussions and engaged with tenured faculty.

I am fluent in Blackboard and Canvas. And I have completed teacher training certificate programs offered by the Poynter Institute and the City University of New York‘s School of Professional Studies “Online Teaching Essentials" workshop in 2021.

If you would like more information or have any questions, I can be reached at 917.414.1622 or gregg (at) greggbirnbaum.com.

Best,

Selected NBCNews.com and Miami Herald long-form, multi-media stories on which I served as lead editor, managing the projects from conception to publication.