Jan Winburn

Award-winning journalist and editor Jan Winburn was named the fall 2021 T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor at the University of Montana’s School of Journalism.

Winburn has edited stories that won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Livingston Award, among many other national honors.

While in residence at the School of Journalism, she will lead a hands-on curriculum for young journalists about how to interact with victims of violence, survivors and their families. Her course also will consider how journalists themselves are affected by exposure to trauma and tragedy. In 2009, Winburn received the DART Society award for editors “who understand how to navigate the emotional landscape of assignments on tragedy and trauma.”

Winburn is currently a mentor in the University of Georgia’s Master of Fine Arts program in narrative media. Previously she worked at CNN Digital, where she led a team of longform enterprise reporters and was an editor in the investigation unit. She also has worked as an editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Hartford Courant’s Northeast Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Columbia (Missouri) Tribune.