Ferrel Guillory is professor of the practice in UNC’s School of Media and Journalism. He is founding director of the UNC Program on Public Life, which has worked to bring University scholarship to bear on the public agenda and leadership in North Carolina and the South. Guillory is a co-founder of EducationNC, a nonprofit organization, launched in January 2015, devoted to covering and analyzing public education news in North Carolina. Through MDC Inc. a Durham-based nonprofit, at which he is a senior fellow, Guillory has co-authored eight The State of the South reports (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010-11, 2014). He also co-authored the book, The Carolinas: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: An Exploration of Social and Economic Trends, 1924-1999 (Duke Press, 1999). Before academia, Guillory spent more than 25 years as a newspaper and magazine journalist. During his time at The News & Observer in Raleigh, he was the newspaper’s state capital columnist, Washington correspondent and editorial page editor.