Lawrence Pintak, PhD is an award-winning journalist, scholar, and media development expert who has reported from four continents and led projects in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and the Caucasus that support the independence and viability of journalism. He was founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, served as dean of the Graduate School of Media and Communications at The Aga Khan University in East Africa, helped found Pakistan’s Centre for Excellence in Journalism, and directed the Arab world’s leading media training center in the years leading up to the Arab Spring. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, Pintak is the author of seven books at the intersection of Islam, media, and U.S. policy, and was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2017 for “extraordinary service to the profession of journalism” around the world. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies and coordinates international projects for Murrow College from a European base. A longtime student of the perennial wisdom at the heart of the world's religions, he recently completed a book on mysticism, which will be published in the summer of 2025.