Professor
Executive Director, Jandoli Institute
Assistant Director, Francis E. Kelley Oxford Program
Co-editor, TAPinto Greater Olean
Office phone: 716-375-2563
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- Ph.D., Media Studies, Rutgers University, 2013
- M.A., Public Media Arts, Montclair State College, 1979
- B.A., English, Saint Bonaventure University, 1975
Academic Background
Rich joined the Jandoli School faculty in 2011 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor and received tenure in 2015. He was promoted to full professor in 2022. During summers, he serves as assistant director of St. Bonaventure’s Francis E. Kelley Oxford Program and teaches at Oxford University’s Trinity College.
As a professor, Rich incorporates his work in journalism, government and public policy into his courses. He has taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate classes, including seminar-style courses on political campaigns and the relationship between media and democracy.
Rich speaks regularly at academic conferences devoted to journalism, communication and pop culture. He wrote a chapter on the impact of protest music during the Vietnam War era for
War and the Media: Essays on News Reporting, Propaganda and Popular Culture, a book published by McFarland & Company in September 2009. He also authored chapters in two books published by the Hall Institute of Public Policy – New Jersey.
Rich was director of the Jandoli School’s graduate program in Integrated Marketing Communication from 2014 to 2018, when he stepped down to devote more time to media research.
He began his academic career teaching public relations as an adjunct instructor at Mercer County Community College in 1996. He taught a media and government class at Rutgers University from 2006 to 2011. In the summer of 2010, Rich served as a visiting professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy, where he taught a class on media and elections.
As a journalist, Rich held a variety of jobs ranging from political reporter to rock music critic. He worked at daily and weekly newspapers as well as an entertainment news-magazine, and his freelance articles appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times. While working as State House Correspondent for The News Tribune of Woodbridge, he was awarded first place in the New Jersey Press Association’s 1987 Better News Contest in the Interpretive Writing Category.
In government, Rich held communications positions at the Mayor’s Office in Woodbridge, N.J., the New Jersey General Assembly and the Office of the Governor, where he served as Deputy Director of Communication.
Rich was a founding member of the Hall Institute of Public Policy – New Jersey and served as its Communications Director from 2005 to 2011. While at the Institute, he provided commentary and analysis for a number of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, WNBC-TV and the Fox News Channel. When Barack Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, he provided an American perspective for Times of India television.