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Henry H. Chu ’90, a longtime Los Angeles Times reporter and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism’s deputy curator, will serve as the foundation’s interim curator while it searches for a long-term leader.
Chu, who was a Nieman fellow during the 2014-2015 academic year, will assume his new post in July.
Chu’s interim appointment, announced in early June, comes after Ann Marie Lipinski, the current Nieman curator, announced she would step down from the position after 14 years in February.
Lipinski said in an interview that Chu is a “beautiful writer and editor” and has a “deep commitment to journalism, to the fundamental role it plays in a healthy democracy, and to advancing journalism in this country and across the world.”
Chu has worked in the field for more than three decades. He started at the Los Angeles Times in 1990 and joined the paper’s foreign staff in 1998, eventually becoming bureau chief in four different cities. He was part of two teams at the LA Times that won Pulitzer Prizes for breaking news coverage.
Chu also worked a stint at Variety magazine, directing the coverage of the entertainment industry across continents.
The Nieman Foundation has hosted more than 1,700 journalists from 100 countries as fellows at Harvard since its founding in 1938. The curator leads the foundation, overseeing its three publications: Nieman Reports, the Nieman Journalism Lab, and Nieman Storyboard.
Lipinksi also highlighted Chu’s experience reporting internationally, citing the University’s ongoing battle with the White House concerning its ability to host international students.
“He comes to Nieman with a lot of international experience, which is always important to our program because half of our fellows are international,” she said.
“So always important, but especially important right now, given some of the challenges that the university faces with bringing international students and fellows to campus,” she added.
Chu, who has reported from more than 30 countries — including a majority of the countries represented by the incoming cohort of fellows — said his global experience will be beneficial in guiding the group as they navigate challenges to press freedom worldwide.
“Being aware of the conflict zones and places where journalists are being cracked down upon is already a great help and a benefit, so that I’ll actually understand what it is the conditions are like,” he said.
In his tenure as interim curator, Chu said that he hopes to expand upon the foundation’s alumni network — which he said is the “greatest gift” he’s received from Nieman. He also hopes to emphasize international collaborations and partnerships between news organizations.
“There have been 1,700 Nieman Fellows since the program’s inception 87 years ago, and this is an amazing network of journalists all across the world — who, if there was no time before now that it was so needed, can show a lot of solidarity,” Chu said.
— Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.
—Staff writer Caroline G. Hennigan can be reached at caroline.hennigan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cghennigan.
