Jane Eisner Email & Phone Number

I've recently embarked on the next chapter of my career, as a freelance journalist, educator, and consultant. My second book, an interpretive biography of Carole King for the Jewish Lives series, is scheduled to be published by Yale University Press next year. I am now looking for more opportunities to write, edit, moderate programs, help digital start-ups, mentor and educate the next generation of journalists. I relished my years as director of academic affairs at Columbia Journalism School, where I oversaw the Master of Arts program, for experienced journalists who want to delve into politics, arts and culture, science, and business. I worked with superb faculty and administrators to help shape the future of journalism -- at my alma mater, no less! Before then, I was editor-in-chief of The Forward for more than a decade. I led the storied Jewish news organization into the digital age, publishing groundbreaking investigations, hiring and nurturing young journalists with enormous talent, and winning regional and national journalism awards for my own writing. I also interviewed such notables as President Barack Obama and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In addition to Columbia, I've taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Wesleyan University. I spent 25 amazing years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editorial page editor, and national columnist. I also worked for several fulfilling years at the National Constitution Center. Last year, I consulted with Shtetl, a digital startup covering the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in New York, assisting with hiring, writing job descriptions and a code of ethics, and developing editorial strategy. I am currently a judge for the Sami Rohr Prize and the Jewish Renaissance project, based in the UK, and am consulting for Columbia Journalism School and Central Synagogue. I continue to be a regular contributor to the Washington Post's Book section, where I write reviews and essays, and have recently been published in The Atlantic and the Los Angeles Times.Now I plan to take all those experiences, and the knowledge and insight I have gleaned from them, into this next chapter: to pay it forward in journalism, to help my community, and to return to my first love: writing.