Howard Schneider is the founding dean of the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University, spearheading the team that developed the proposal for SUNY’s first School of Journalism. For more than 35 years. Schneider was a reporter and editor at Newsday. For nearly 18 of those years, he was managing editor and then editor.
Under his tenure, the paper won eight Pulitzer Prizes in categories including investigative reporting deadline reporting, arts criticism, specialized beat reporting and foreign affairs reporting. Under his leadership, Newsday was among the first newspapers in the country to create news websites; he also led efforts to introduce TV and radio into what had been an all-print newsroom.
At Stony Brook, Schneider helped develop the nation’s first course in News Literacy, which seeks to have undergraduates across all disciplines study how to become discerning news consumers. The course has subsequently spread to universities around the nation. He is the executive director of the school’s Center for News Literacy. He also collaborated with the actor Alan Alda in launching the country’s first Center for Communicating Science, which is housed in the journalism school, and which trains future and current scientists on how to communicate more effectively with the public.
Schneider began his teaching career at Stony Brook as an adjunct professor of journalism from 1980-1982. Previously, he had been an adjunct professor of journalism at Queens College in 1979. In 2003, Schneider was the recipient of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Alumnus Award (M.S.’67). He earned his B.A at Syracuse University in psychology and journalism (’66). He has been a member of the Pulitzer Prize judging panel three times.