Jeff Fruit
Director and Professor

204B Franklin Hall
Tel: 330-672-2572
Email: jfruit@kent.edu

Spring 2008 Office Hours

By Appointment

Jeff Fruit has been Director of the School since 2003. He had been a senior business manager at Kent State since 1998, managing the Office of Student Media. He has experience in both journalism education and professional media.

Fruit has a B.A. cum laude with a double major in journalism and history from Ohio Wesleyan University and a M.A. in journalism from Ohio State. He also passed general examinations for an interdisciplinary Ph.D. at Ohio State.

He worked for more than 15 years in daily, weekly and monthly publications, in positions ranging from reporter to publisher. His media career includes startup and turnaround experience with American City Business Journals, where he served as editor of South Florida Business Journal and publisher of Dallas Business Journal, among other positions.

Fruit also served as an assistant professor of journalism at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was advanced to tenure and served on a range of university committees.

He is co-author with Lee B. Becker and Susan L. Caudill of The Training and Hiring of Journalists.