Klein College of Media and Communication Dean David Boardman has spent the last ten years dedicated to the advancement of Klein College. In addition to his role as the fearless leader of the college, Boardman is involved in many other pursuits that complement and bolster his efforts.
Just a few years after arriving at Klein College from The Seattle Times, Boardman was asked by the late philanthropist Gerry Lenfest to be the founding chair of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. The nonprofit organization owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and is dedicated to finding a viable future for community journalism.
Boardman served as chair of the Institute for five years and remains on the board and executive committee.
“Besides Mr. Lenfest himself, no one has had a greater influence on the vision or execution of the Institute’s mission to help support The Philadelphia Inquirer and to save local news across the country,” wrote Lenfest Insitute Executive Director and CEO Jim Friedlich.
In 2019, the Institute co-founded and launched Spotlight PA, a collaborative hub for news organizations across the state. With more than 100 newspaper, television station and radio station partners, Spotlight PA has become a national model for independent collaborative journalism.
Boardman assumed the role of chair of the Spotlight PA board at the request of Friedlich in 2023. Recently, Spotlight PA announced its independence from The Lenfest Institute as a nonprofit organization.
“It’s really an amazing organization in a relatively short time,” Boardman said. “It’s established itself as one of the premier watchdog organizations not only in Pennsylvania but in the country.”
Another organization that Boardman has been involved with since its beginning is the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN). The network, founded in 2013, is dedicated to using rigorous reporting to surface and explore potential solutions to societal problems.
Early in SJN’s history, Co-Founder and CEO David Bornstein approached Boardman, then executive editor and senior vice president of The Seattle Times, for a conversation about the new organization. Bornstein was looking for an established mainstream journalism leader with a strong reputation with whom to partner, believing that would give SJN credibility in journalism.
Bornstein flew to Seattle to meet Boardman, and by the end of lunch together, the pair had hatched the Education Lab, a solutions-journalism-focused initiative that The Seattle Times still runs today. The success of Education Lab led to SJN’s expansion into what is now a large international organization. Boardman became the first chair of SJN’s Board of Directors and remains on the board today. Several other Klein College faculty members have been involved with the organization as well.
“He’s driven by a very powerful ethical imperative that journalism should describe the world accurately and help create better communities and a better world,” Bornstein said.
Boardman is also the chair of another nonprofit newsroom, The Markup, which investigates how powerful organizations use technology. The organization recently gained recognition with a Scripps Howard Award for excellence in innovation for their series, Still Loading, about internet service quality disparities in big cities.
Boardman’s dedication to rigorous reporting has also led him to serve on the boards of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
“All of this has kept me involved with the industry and enabled me to make connections for our students and faculty with the emerging trends in journalism,” Boardman said.
In addition to his continued industry service, Boardman is a member of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Boardman noted that he has been blessed with a lot of energy, which allows him to stay active in the profession and in the education of future professionals. He feels lucky to have two careers he loves: as a journalist and a dean.
Looking ahead, Boardman will remain steadfast in his dedication to keeping Klein College's curriculum current as the industry around us changes.
“Dean Boardman is very rare, if not totally unique, in having reached the top of his field in three distinct areas of American journalism: He was a long-time editor-in-chief, overseeing the winning of four Pulitzer prizes at The Seattle Times. He is widely recognized as a profoundly gifted dean and leader in journalism education. And he has served as board chairman of no less than half a dozen major nonprofit news support groups,” Friedlich wrote.