Lawrence Pintak, PhD is an award-winning journalist, scholar, and media development expert who has reported from four continents and led projects in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and the Caucasus that support the independence and viability of journalism. He served as dean of the Graduate School of Media and Communications at The Aga Khan University in East Africa, founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, helped found Pakistan’s Centre for Excellence in Journalism, and directed the Arab world’s leading media training center in the years leading up to the Arab Spring. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, Pintak is the author of five books at the intersection of media, democracy, and international relations, and was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2017 for “extraordinary service to the profession of journalism” around the world. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies.