Berkeley Journalism Professor Honored

A UC Berkeley professor who was the second Latina to become tenured at a major American journalism school has been selected to receive the Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Lydia Chavez, a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, was nominated for the award by several former students. The annual award is given to a journalism educator who makes significant contributions in journalism education and upholds the standards of the profession.

Chavez will be honored in September at a ceremony in Atlanta.

An “incurable curiosity” brought Chavez to the field of journalism, but she never wanted to be a teacher, she said by e-mail from France, where she is hiking and working on a book.

“I’m deadly boring in any lecture class,” she said. “But teaching at Berkeley is not about lecturing. It’s about being a good editor and breaking the process down; pushing students to use their own smarts.”

Chavez teaches Journalism 200, an introductory journalism class. David Gelles, 28, took the class with Chavez in fall 2006 and nominated her for the award.

“I worried that I wouldn’t be able to be a good reporter and within days she had turned that around,” he said.

Gelles, who graduated in May and said he will join the business staff at The Miami Herald in September, said Chavez’s teaching still influences him.

“I think about her every time I write a story,” he said.

Clint Brewer, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said Chavez was selected for the award because she is, “such a force of nature.”

“She just all around is an exemplary educator,” he said.

By Shauntel Lowe

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