2015 “Meet the Higher Education Press” Biographies
INSIDE HIGHER ED
Scott Jaschik, editor, is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. With Doug Lederman, he leads
the editorial operations of Inside Higher Ed, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice,
blogs, and other features. Jaschik is a leading voice on higher education issues, is quoted regularly in
publications nationwide, and has published articles on higher education issues in the New York Times,
Boston Globe, Washington Post, Salon, and elsewhere. He has been a judge or screener for the National
Magazine Awards, Online Journalism Awards, Folio Editorial Excellence Awards, and Education Writers
Association Awards. From 1999 to 2003, he was editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Email:
scott.jaschik@insidehighered.com; Twitter: @IHEpublishing
Doug Lederman, editor, is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. With Scott Jaschik, he leads
the site’s editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs, and other
features. Lederman speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public
Radio and at meetings around the country, and his work has appeared in the New York Times and USA
Today, among other publications. He began working at the Chronicle of Higher Education in 1986 in
various roles and was managing editor of the Chronicle from 1999 to 2003. Lederman has won three
National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association. He began his career as
a news clerk at the New York Times. Email: doug.lederman@insidehighered.com; Twitter: @dougledIHE
Carl Straumsheim, technology reporter, joined Inside Higher Ed in 2013. He got his start in journalism
as a video game blogger for Norway’s third-largest paper, Dagbladet, at age 15, and has since dabbled in
media criticism, investigative reporting, and political coverage. Straumsheim (pronounced STRAWMShyme) boasts that he once received a perfect score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, which
enabled him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in English from LaGrange College and a master’s degree in
journalism from the University of Maryland at College Park. Email:
carl.straumsheim@insidehighered.com; Twitter: @carlstraumsheim
Kellie Woodhouse, reporter, joined Inside Higher Ed in 2015. She covers business, funding, and
leadership in higher education. Previously, she was a higher education and University of Michigan
reporter for the Ann Arbor News and AnnArbor.com for three years and a general assignment reporter for
the Baltimore Sun Media Group for two years. She interned at the Sun and National Geographic and
graduated from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, where she was a staff
writer for the daily student newspaper. Woodhouse has won press awards for investigative, public service,
and government reporting, as well as feature writing and ongoing coverage of a news event. Email:
kellie.woodhouse@insidehighered.com; Twitter: Kellie Woodhouse
2015 “Meet the Higher Education Press” Biographies
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Nick DeSantis, web editor, joined the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2012. He writes for the
publication’s breaking-news blog and helps to coordinate daily news coverage on the website. He also has
reported on education technology, with a focus on start-up companies and online learning. Before joining
the Chronicle, DeSantis covered real estate, business, and transportation for hyperlocal news blogs in
New York City. His work has appeared in the pages of Washington City Paper as well. DeSantis earned a
bachelor’s degree in British and American literature at Middlebury College and a master’s in journalism
at New York University. Email: nicholas.desantis@chronicle.com
Audrey Williams June, senior reporter, writes about the academic workplace. Her areas of expertise
include faculty pay, the academic job market, the recruitment and retention of faculty members, work-life
balance in the academy, and efforts to diversify the professoriate. Before joining the Chronicle, June was
a business reporter for the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. While there, she wrote about the ups
and downs of entrepreneurs before landing a spot on the paper’s team of banking reporters. She also
worked as an environmental reporter for the Telegraph in Georgia. June earned a bachelor’s degree in
journalism from Florida A&M University. Email: audrey.june@chronicle.com
Sara Lipka, a senior editor, oversees the Chronicle’s coverage of students, from prospective applicants to
recent graduates or dropouts. She has written extensively about campus discipline and student legal
issues, including federal crime-reporting and privacy law. Lipka also reports on student life and helped
start the Chronicle’s student-life podcast series, “Say Something.” Before joining the Chronicle in 2003,
Lipka interned at the Atlantic. She graduated from Duke University summa cum laude in 2001 and spent
the following year in Chile as a Fulbright fellow. Email: sara.lipka@chronicle.com; Twitter: @chronsara
Liz McMillen became editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education in August 2011. In her career at the
Chronicle she has served in several roles: as a reporter covering faculty issues; as a senior editor
supervising the paper’s coverage of scholarship, research, and publishing, and earlier of college business
and fundraising; and as editor of the Chronicle Review. As editor of CHE, she supervises a newsroom of
65 reporters, editors, data journalists, and designers who produce a daily website, weekly print edition,
and several special supplements a year. Previously, she worked for the Associated Press in Philadelphia
and later attended the University of Durham on a Rotary International Fellowship. She received her
bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and was a recipient of the Knight-Wallace
Fellowship at the University of Michigan. Email: liz.mcmillen@chronicle.com; Twitter: @lmcmillen
Stacey Patton, a staff reporter who joined the Chronicle in 2011, writes about graduate students. Her
coverage areas include adjuncts, career outcomes for PhDs, diversity among doctoral students in STEM
fields, and students navigating the graduate-school experience. Previously, Patton was a senior editor and
writer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She also has reported for the Washington
Post and Baltimore Sun and has contributed articles and editorials to the New York Times, Newsday, and
the NAACP’s magazine, Crisis. In addition to her work as a journalist, she is a nationally recognized
child activist and founder of Spare the Kids Inc., an organization that combats child abuse. Patton is the
author of the award-winning memoir, That Mean Old Yesterday (2007). She attended the Johns Hopkins
University and New York University, where she received a journalism degree and graduated with honors.
She holds a PhD in American history from Rutgers University. Email:stacey.patton@chronicle.com
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Andy Thomason has been a web news writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education since May 2014.
Earlier, he was an intern at the Chronicle, focusing on finance and policy. Thomason served in various
editing positions—including editor-in-chief—at the Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He graduated with distinction with a bachelor of arts degree
in history from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2013. Email: andy.thomason@chronicle.com; Twitter: @arthomason
Ian Wilhelm, a senior editor, edits the Chronicle’s international section. He joined the Chronicle in 2010
and reports on the international activities of U.S. colleges, manages the newspaper’s foreign
correspondents, and edits “WorldWise,” a Chronicle blog on global higher education. Previously,
Wilhelm was a senior writer for the newspaper’s sister publication, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where
he covered international philanthropy and foundations. He has traveled for both newspapers, reporting
from Africa, China, Germany, and Sri Lanka, among other places. He holds a bachelor’s degree in writing
from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism. Email: ian.wilhelm@chronicle.com; Twitter: @ianwilhelm
Jeffrey R. Young, an editor, leads the Chronicle’s coverage of technology and its impact on teaching,
research, student life, and the nature of the college experience. He also contributes to and oversees
content for the “Wired Campus” blog and writes “College 2.0,” a monthly news-analysis column that
tracks technology ideas at colleges. Young joined the Chronicle in 1995 and previously led the paper’s
“Students” section. In 2007, he took a yearlong break from writing to become the Chronicle’s first web
editor, helping start blogs, podcasts, and multimedia features. Young has written for national publications
including the New York Times, New Scientist, and Wall Street Journal. He received a bachelor’s degree in
English from Princeton University in 1995 and a master’s in communication, culture, and technology
from Georgetown University in 2001. Email: jeff.young@chronicle.com; Twitter: @jryoung
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