Conference Panelist Peggy Kuhr

Peggy Kuhr is the Knight Chair in community journalism at the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications in Lawrence, Kan. She is one of 17 Knight Chair professors of journalism at major schools of journalism around the country.

Kuhr came to KU from Spokane, Wash., where she worked for The Spokesman Review for 16 years. She started as a project editor, became city editor, assisting managing editor and then became the managing editor for content. She oversaw the news, sports, features and business sections. In 1993, Kuhr and The Spokesman Review staff were a Pulitzer Prize finalist in spot news. Kuhr directed 13 days of City Desk coverage of a standoff between white separatists in Idaho and the federal government.

Before working in Spokane, Kuhr worked for the Great Falls Tribune in Great Falls, Mont., and for The Hartford Courant in Hartford, Conn. She is a Michigan Journalism Fellow. Kuhr has also taught journalism-related courses at Eastern Washington University and Gonzaga University.

On the national level, Kuhr has been around the country to give presentations on directing project stories and on newsroom culture. She remains active with Associated Press Managing Editors (APME). In 2004-05, she is leading an effort for the APME National Credibility Roundtables Project; six journalism classes around the country will plan and conduct a community forum for a local newspaper. Kuhr served on the APME board of directors for two terms. She also planned and executed the 2002 APME National Convention in Baltimore.