Schools
Cynthia Tucker Leaving AJC To teach at UGA
The high-profile commentator will live in Atlanta again and become a visiting professor at the University of Georgia's Grady School of Journalism.
Cynthia Tucker, arguably the most powerful African-American ever to work at a major southern daily newspaper, is leaving The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to become a visiting professor at The University of Georgia.
Tucker, a political columnist based in Washington, D.C., who won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007, assumes her new role Aug. 12, according to reports in the AJC and the News @ Grady website.
According to the AJC story, Tucker, 56, was editorial page editor of AJC from 2001 to 2009, when she moved to Washington as a political columnist in a realignment of the opinion-editorial department.
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Her last regular column appeared Sunday.
A member of First Congregational Church and an active member in several southwest Atlanta-based organizations over the years, including The Southern Snow Seekers, Tucker said Wednesday she looks forward to giving back to the next generation of journalists.
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"I'm thrilled to embark on the next chapter in my career," Tucker said in the UGA News @ Grady story. "During the past two years, I've had the chance to observe fascinating debates, interview top elected officials and comment on the dynamic political forces which are re-shaping public policy. Now, I'm going to share my experiences and teach tomorrow's journalists."
Tucker said she will move back to Atlanta from Washington and commute to Athens, where she expects to start teaching a course in persuasive writing in the spring semester.
An Alabama native and Auburn University graduate, Tucker began her career in 1976 as a reporter at The Atlanta Journal. After a stint at the Philadelphia Inquirer and as a freelancer, she returned to the Journal as a columnist and editorial writer, then moved to the editorial page of The Atlanta Constitution. At the time the papers had separate editorial pages, with the Journal leaning right and the Constitution left.
She was promoted to editorial page editor of the Constitution in 1992 and held the same role when the papers’ editorial pages were combined in 2001.
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