Maynard named director of Reynolds Center

Micheline Maynard, a former New York Times senior business correspondent, will be the new director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Maynard will lead business journalism training efforts for the Reynolds Center, the world’s premier provider of ongoing training for business reporters and editors. The center is supported through grants from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

“The Trustees of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation have invested nearly $20 million at ASU to help advance the field of business journalism nationally,” said Reynolds Foundation President Steven Anderson in a statement. “The appointment of a professional with the national stature of Micheline Maynard to direct the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism builds upon a tradition of leaders who preceded her. Like them, she is an award-winning journalist, author and educator. We look forward to the advancements the Center will experience under her entrepreneurial leadership.”

Maynard, who will take over her new role this summer, taught at the Cronkite School as a Reynolds Visiting Professor in Business Journalism during the spring 2014 semester. She replaces Linda Austin, an experienced newsroom leader who led the center for more than five years.

As the new director, Maynard will set the direction for the center and develop and deliver a variety of business journalism training programs for professional journalists, including webinars, workshops and conferences. She also will oversee the Reynolds Center’s new online graduate certificate in business journalism and work to extend the Reynolds brand globally.

“I’m excited to be joining the Reynolds Center team, which is already a legend for business journalism education,” Maynard said in a statement. “My goal is to help journalists everywhere understand the role money plays in every kind of story, from traditional business coverage to education, sports and politics, just to name a few areas.”

As a senior business correspondent for The New York Times, Maynard directed multimedia coverage of the automotive and airline industries. Prior to that, she ran the newspaper’s Detroit bureau, directing coverage of the auto industry and other national news stories. She was the 2009 recipient of the Nathaniel Nash Award, which recognizes outstanding business and economics coverage and collegiality by a Times staffer.

Before joining The Times, Maynard was Detroit bureau chief for both USA Today and Reuters News Service. She also worked as a business reporter for New York Newsday, automotive editor for United Press International, and associate editor for U.S. News & World Report, covering personal finance and serving as Midwest correspondent.