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Meet PhD student Jim DeBrosse
by Michael Sweeney, Professor; Associate Director for Graduate Studies
First-year Ph.D. student Jim DeBrosse brings more than 30 years of experience in the journalism industry with him to the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. A native of Dayton, Ohio, DeBrosse received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1974 and received his master’s degree from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1976.
DeBrosse has worked at newspapers in Florida, Virginia and Ohio, covering many topics and holding nearly every position in the journalism field. He has garnered many awards including being named Ohio’s Best Reporter in 2000, and in 2007 was named Ohio’s Best Critic by the Society of Professional Journalists.
DeBrosse has also authored four books, including his most recent work, published in 2004, The Secret in Building 26, detailing Dayton’s NCR Corporation’s role during WWII in developing a sophisticated code-breaking machine that helped the Allies crack the German U-boat Enigma codes.
Getting a taste for academia at the University of Cincinnati as the student media advisor for four years, DeBrosse retired from the newsroom in August 2010 and decided to follow his new career goal of earning a doctorate in journalism to become a full-time college professor. At the age of 58, DeBrosse feels he can still learn a thing or two about the academic side of journalism.
—By Scripps MS student Eric Walsh
