Matt Sheehan

Matt Sheehan is the Managing Director of the Center for Public Interest Communications and a senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications.

With a career that bridges professional journalism and academia, Sheehan has consistently been at the forefront of media innovation. He was the inaugural director of the university’s Innovation News Center, a 100-plus-seat integrated newsroom that serves as a real-world learning environment for students while serving a 16-county area in North Florida with news, weather and sports content on digital, television and radio platforms. He also spearheaded the “Hatch” experimental content and media product incubator, launched the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology as interim director and taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in innovative storytelling, editing, then-emerging tools like drone journalism and 360 video, media product design and leadership. For the last few years, he’s taught UF’s Principles of Journalism course, preparing the next generation of journalists for a swiftly changing world.

Sheehan’s professional journey includes serving as an assistant news editor at The Washington Post and served as an adjunct professor in visual journalism at the University of Maryland. He later became the chief operating officer of a digital media startup in Washington, D.C. and also held a senior administrative role at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

At the University of Florida, Sheehan is responsible for the operations and financial sustainability of the Center for Public Interest Communications, a self-funded unit that advises on the application of behavioral, cognitive and social science to create strategic communication for change.

Sheehan has trained thousands of scientists, humanitarians, senior military officials and other leaders. He is a co-founder of the former Journalism Interactive conference and educator consortium, which focused on digital media in journalism education. He’s a co-organizer of the frank gathering. His work and insights on newsroom transformation and audience engagement have been widely recognized and published. He’s been published in The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, St. Petersburg Times, American Journalism Review, Neiman Lab and elsewhere.

 

He holds a Master of Business Administration with a focus on strategy and change, and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Maryland.