Professor John Sanchez (Apache/Yaqui) is formerly with The American University, in Washington, DC, where he served as the Academic Director of the American Indian Leadership program and taught American Indian Leadership and Politics in addition to Journalism. Under his leadership President Clinton’s panel on race initiatives recognized this program as one of the five top programs in the country.
As an Associate Professor at Penn State University, he taught in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications where he specialized in News Media Ethics and American Indians in the News Media. Professor Sanchez’s research interests are focused primarily at the intersection of contemporary American Indian cultures and the American News Media and he publishes his research in American Indian journals, Teacher Education journals, and Communication Studies journals. Professor Sanchez was recently named one of the top leading scholars in the field of Intercultural studies by The Communication Institute for Online Scholarship. He is a Freedom Forum Teaching Fellow, an AEJMC/ASJMC Freedom Forum Journalism Leadership in Diversity Fellow and a Kiplinger Fellow of Public Affairs Reporting. Professor Sanchez also served on the executive boards of the CIC American Indian Studies Consortium, the American Native Press Archives and as a consultant to the board of directors of the American Indian Policy and Media Initiative. Professor Sanchez is also a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award at Penn State University and has been named a Distinguished Professor in the Schreyer Honors College working with the top 1% of the brightest students at Penn State University. Professor Sanchez also co-edited a textbook titled: American Indians in the Media and is the recipient of a number of teaching and diversity/inclusion awards.
After 40 years in the classroom, Professor Sanchez is now a Professor Emeritus at the
Pennsylvania State University.
