Susan F. Paterno

Director, Journalism Program; Hua-Cheng Wang Fellowship in Scholarly Excellence (1995-1997); Professor of English, 1991
paterno@chapman.edu

A.B., Occidental College; M.S.J., Northwestern University.

Susan F. Paterno, director of the journalism program at Chapman University, is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years experience as a reporter, writer and columnist. A senior writer for "American Journalism Review," Professor Paterno won the National Press Club's 2006 Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Parenting and many other publications. She has collaborated on a half dozen books, including The Newswriters Handbook and Talk Straight, Listen Carefully: The Art of Interviewing with M.L. Stein, the retired chair of New York University's Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. For nearly a decade, Professor Paterno served on the staff of the Orange County Register, where she won numerous awards for writing and reporting, and several fellowships for post-graduate study. In 1995, Chapman University awarded her the Hua-Cheng Wang Fellowship in Scholarly achievement, the highest honor Chapman confers on a member of the faculty. She holds a post-graduate degree from the University of Southern California, a M.S.J. from Northwestern University and two A.B. degrees from Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors in American Studies and Diplomacy and World Affairs. She speaks French and Spanish fluently. In 2008, she defeated multi-millionaire Wendy McCaw in a widely publicized libel and defamation lawsuit stemming from the publication of "Santa Barbara Smack Down" in the American Journalism Review.