Rate My Professor Brett Kurland

Brett Kurland is Assistant Dean, Director of Master’s Programs, Director of Sports Programs, and Professor of Practice at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Joining the school in 2012 as Faculty Associate, he advanced to Professor of Practice in 2014 and founding Director of the Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau (2014–2021), where upper-level undergraduate and master’s students produced written and video stories on professional, collegiate, and high school sports for The Arizona Republic, Arizona PBS, Fox Sports, Pac-12 Networks, and ArizonaSports.com. Under his leadership, the bureau created “Cronkite Sports Report,” a 30-minute sports news magazine show that was a national finalist and regional winner in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Awards and best TV sports news program at the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts, and “Cronkite Sports Now,” a daily live show on Facebook Live. As Director of Sports Programs since 2021, Kurland oversees bachelor’s and master’s sports journalism curricula, faculty, and partnerships with the NFL, NCAA, U.S. Soccer, Sports Journalism Institute, Pac-12 Conference, and Sun Devil Athletics, growing the program to over 50% of the school’s immersion student population. Since 2022 as Assistant Dean, he advances schoolwide academic strategy, faculty supervision and hiring, chairs the Academic Standards and Master’s Committees, oversees 11 capstone professional immersion programs, supervises the activation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Reporting and Communications Initiative ($1MM+ grant), manages ~$2MM in graduate funding, and contributes to accreditation with the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Kurland earned a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2006, with majors in Media Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship & Innovation, achieving a 3.7 GPA, Dean’s List honors, the Lee Hague Memorial Fund Award, and semifinalist status in the Kellogg Business Plan Competition. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism with a minor in Political Science from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in 1998. Prior to ASU, Kurland accumulated over 16 years in sports media as Production Coordinator and Associate Producer at Fox Sports Net Chicago and Bay Area (1998–2001), Producer at Intersport (2001–2006) creating content for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN, and the first made-for-mobile sports content for Sprint, Chief Content Officer and Founding Partner at Golmix (2009–2014), Managing Partner and Founder at Relate Digital (2010–2014), and Owner, President, and Founder of Generation Idea Media (2007–2014), producing documentaries, live events, and spot news for ABC, ESPN, CBS, NFL Network, Big Ten Network, NHL Network, and Bloomberg. Kurland has directed study abroad programs including Covering the Summer Olympics in Rio (2016), Cronkite Scotland: Golf & the British Open (2018), Tokyo (2020, virtual), and Paris (2024), with student content for KPNX-TV, Arizona PBS, and Arizona Republic partners. An award-winning producer, he received a National Sports Emmy Award, four Telly Awards, a W3 Award, and Webby Award and Emmy nominations. At ASU, he teaches multimedia journalism skills to all master’s students, graduate seminars on professional identity and leadership, and serves as Honors Faculty Advisor.