Berkley Center

Georgetown University’s Journalism Program in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs are thrilled to announce that longtime editor Terence Samuel has joined the university for the fall 2025 semester as the distinguished Sakka Family Religion and International Journalism Fellow.

Samuel was most recently editor-in-chief of USA Today, and prior to that was vice president and executive editor at NPR. He joined NPR after six years in leadership roles at The Washington Post Company, including White House editor during the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to benefit from Terry’s keen insight and vast expertise in the newsroom,” said Professor of the Practice Rebecca Sinderbrand, director of the Journalism Program at Georgetown, who previously worked alongside Samuel at the Washington Post. “I’m thrilled that students here will now have the opportunity to connect with him in the classroom and beyond.”

“Terry’s distinguished journalism career is marked by sophisticated engagement across political and policy issues, including the intersection of religion and politics. We are delighted to host Terry as the next Sakka fellow,” said Professor Michael Kessler, executive director of the Berkley Center. “Georgetown is truly grateful for Kareem and Dania Sakka’s generosity and their keen insight that sharper reporting about religion and politics is critical for public understanding.”

Engaging Across Georgetown

At Georgetown, Samuel will lead a series of public conversations—both public panels, and a weekly discussion group featuring award-winning journalists and other expert voices—for the university community during the fall semester. Those events, to be held in the months leading up to the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, will explore the impact of shifting perceptions of the nature of truth in public life, the evolving relationship between government and the press, and the lessons religion reporting holds for journalists covering national politics now. 

Samuel will also advise the long-form narrative reporting seminar, a course for graduating seniors in the journalism minor who are completing their capstone project exploring the American experience at this moment, as well as hold office hours as a fellow in residence on the university’s Hilltop Campus. Samuel is looking forward to engaging the Georgetown University community.

“The American experiment has arrived at a crucial inflection point in terms of how we understand our common identity and how we communicate with each other. Facts and truth are being tested as pillars of the common good," said Samuel.

"The rules of civic engagement are changing rapidly, and I am excited to join Georgetown in leading these important conversations about how these changes affect the daily lives of Americans, at home and abroad, in private as well as in their public relationships.” 

Beyond his decades in leadership positions in some of the nation’s top newsrooms, Samuel brings deep experience in both education and writing to the role. He has long been an active board member of the National Press Foundation, the Washington-based nonprofit devoted to educating journalists on how best to cover complex public policy issues. He is the author of The Upper House: A Journey Behind the Closed Doors of the United States Senate (2010), as well as a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and a former fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics & Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Samuel began his career as a writing fellow at the Village Voice and was a reporter at the Roanoke Times, a national correspondent at both the Philadelphia Inquirer and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and chief congressional correspondent at U.S. News & World Report before becoming managing editor at the National Journal. He was a director of editorial programming for AOL Black Voices before joining the Washington Post Company in 2007 to help launch TheRoot.com. He wrote a politics column for The American Prospect for six years, and his work was featured in Best American Political Writing of 2009. Samuel is a graduate of the City College of New York.

The Sakka Family Religion and International Journalism Fellowship is made possible through a generous gift from Kareem Sakka (G'91, P'20, P'24) and Dania Sakka (P'20, P'24). The fellowship program is jointly administered by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the Georgetown Journalism Program in the College of Arts & Sciences.