Matt Sheehan
Director - 21st Century News Laboratory
Lecturer - Department of Journalism
Online news director - Division of Multimedia Properties
MBA,
University of Maryland, 2008
BA,
Journalism, University of Maryland, 2002
Office: 3051 Weimer
Phone: (352) 352-354-3629
Email:
Biography
Matthew C. Sheehan is a journalist and MBA who has spent his career working in established and emerging media. He is a former assistant news editor at The Washington Post and previously worked in administration at University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Sheehan joined the college in 2011 as director of the 21st Century News Laboratory, shifting from two years in the media startup world where he served as chief operating officer for a niche media company focused on recreational boating.
While at Merrill, Sheehan worked closely with two deans and the faculty to further integrate multimedia and multi-platform journalism skills throughout the curriculum. He was the online strategist and chief developer for the college and was a primary designer of the college's previous capstone requirement. He worked closely with multiple faculty members to develop interactive and online outlets for student work, and served as an editor for two summers of Maryland's Carnegie/Knight foundation funded News 21 projects.
Sheehan served as an adjunct professor in visual journalism at Merrill while he was working at the Post. He taught graphics and news design to students at the college, high school and post-graduate level, including as an instructor for the American Society of Newspaper Editors High School Journalism Institute, the Maryland-District of Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the Washington Post's Young Journalists Development Program.
His work has been published by multiple national media outlets, including The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, St. Petersburg Times and the American Journalism Review. He has won several awards from the Society of Professional Journalist and the Society for News Design, and was named a Scripps Howard Top 10 Scholar in 2001.
Prior to earning his bachelor of arts in journalism, Sheehan served as editor and vice president at Maryland Media Inc., the publisher of the University of Maryland's independent daily newspaper The Diamondback, and served as managing editor for a year and a half previously. He's been working in journalism since high school where he was a staffer at The Item, the newspaper in Sumter, S.C.