Richard Watts is a senior lecturer in the University of Vermont’s Department of Geography as well as the founder of the Center for Community News. Watts is also the director of the Center for Research on Vermont and co-director of the Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program and coordinator of the Community News Service. He previously earned a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Planning from the University of Vermont, an M.A. in Newspaper Journalism from Syracuse University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Cortland. Richard has worked as a journalist, as an organizer, as a policy analyst in the state governments of New York and Vermont and as a academic researcher. The Center for Community News documents news/academic partnerships at institutions of higher education and produces reports and templates for faculty starting or growing these. The Center builds on the success of UVM’s Community News Service that provides student reported stories to community papers in Vermont.