Gene Policinski named J-Day Keynote

Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, will deliver the keynote address at the 2010 High School Journalism Day.

Policinski is a Ball State journalism graduate, married to a Ball State grad and one of his sons is a Ball State journalism graduate.

Policinski oversees the center’s offices in Nashville at Vanderbilt University, and in Washington, D.C. , at the Newseum. He is co-author of the weekly national newspaper and online column, “Inside the First Amendment,” and executive producer and host of the touring multimedia stage production, “Freedom Sings.”

Policinski began his journalism career in 1969 while attending Ball State. He was Washington editor of USA TODAY when the paper launched in 1982, and was Managing Editor/Sports when he left in 1996 to join the Freedom Forum. He is the founding editor of USA TODAY Sports Weekly. From 1991 through 1993, he was the on-air host of three programs on USA TODAY Sky Radio, and helped develop the paper’s first Internet ventures.

At the Freedom Forum, he has held a number of executive roles. He also was host of “Newseum Radio,” a one-hour program that aired on National Public Radio Worldwide from 1997 to 2000, and was executive producer of “Speaking Freely,” which aired nationwide on public television for five seasons and which was recognized in 2010 with an Emmy award.

Policinski is a member of the boards of trustees of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is an adjunct professor at Winthrop University, and a member of the Ball State journalism alumni board. Born in South Bend, Ind., Policinski was inducted in 1991 into the Ball State Journalism Hall of Fame, and was a recipient in 1996 of the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award.