Christopher Corbett Professor of the Practice, English USM Board of Regents' Faculty Award for Mentoring, 2007-08
Christopher Corbett is an award winning journalist
who has dedicated himself to helping UMBC students achieve a high level of
skill as undergraduate reporters and success in internships and jobs in the
field.
While teaching nearly all of the journalism courses
offered by the Department of English since 1990, Corbett has served as the
faculty advisor to The Retriever Weekly. He led its student editors
and writers to three Reese Cleghorn Fellowships in recent years, and has
helped hundreds of undergraduates hone their critical thinking, writing and
editing skills.
Among Corbett's greatest contributions at UMBC is
identifying internships and jobs in journalism for undergraduates. He has
supervised dozens of students in placements with news organizations in the
Baltimore-Washington area, and graduates have gone on to full-time jobs at
many of these organizations. Recent graduates are currently working for National
Public Radio, the Baltimore Sun,
the Annapolis
Capital, the Maryland Gazette, the Easton Star Democrat and
the Chesapeake
Business Ledger, as well as for newspapers in North Carolina, Alabama,
Kansas, California and other states. Several of Corbett's mentees have
won major professional awards.
Corbett's former students attest to the
extraordinary quality of his mentoring. They describe him as "the best
sort of newspaper advisor, always making wise suggestions for improvement
but never imposing his will," "an active ally for UMBC students who want
journalism jobs," and a teacher/advisor who made sure his students "were
equipped with the skills to be competitive and succeed." Students seek
his counsel on important career decisions long after they have graduated
from UMBC.
From 1977 until 1984, Corbett worked for the Associated
Press, first as a staff writer and legislative reporter in Hartford, Connecticut,
then as news editor for the Middle Atlantic states, based in Baltimore.
From 1985 to 2000, he worked as a nationally syndicated travel writer
for the Universal Press Syndicate, publishing in the New York Times,
Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, among other prominent newspapers.
Since 1994, he has been a regular columnist for Baltimore's Style magazine.
He is the author of the novel Vacationland and a history of the Pony
Express, Orphans Preferred. He is currently working on a history of the
19th century American West. Corbett has received numerous awards for
his work, most recently the Excellence in Journalism Award for Editorial
Writing from the Society for Professional Journalism.
Corbett received his
B.S. in Speech from Northwestern University.
