Richard
Byrne
Richard Byrne Projects
Over more than three decades, I have had a distinguished career in journalism as an editor, reporter and writer.
Richard Byrne Projects is the way we can work together on your publications and initiatives.
Have a look below at the work I have done for institutions and organizations in foreign policy and higher education. (You can also view my CV page for more details.)
I am a current account holder in the federal government's System for Award Management (SAM), and eligible to bid on relevant federal contracts.
Editing and Writing
I have been an editor at a wide array of publications and at all levels of newsroom management -- including executive and/or editor-in-chief positions at St. Louis Magazine, UMBC Magazine and The Wilson Quarterly.
My writing has ranged widely from arts writing and essays to media criticism to foreign policy reporting and analysis to higher education.
Like every journalist of my era, I have mastered a wide range of digital publishing tools and gained invaluable experience bringing great work to the web. This journey culminated in my tenure at The Wilson Quarterly -- the flagship digital publication of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
As editor of nine issues (Summer 2019 through Summer 2021), I led Wilson Quarterly coverage of topics on water insecurity, borders, protest, the regulatory state, historical memory, the new Biden administration and treaties/agreements.
As editor, I also oversaw the two of the most ambitious issues of the WQ since its transition to the web: Korea (Summer 2020) and COVID-19 (Spring 2021).
My time at The Wilson Quarterly also allowed me to grow as a digital journalist, with an interactive feature on the technological innovations of Hong Kong's protest movement and a photo essay on statecraft as stagecraft among my efforts in this sphere.
I also hosted a Wilson Center event on Second World War monuments in the former Yugoslavia, and made multiple appearances on the acclaimed Wilson Center NOW series to discuss WQ features on historical memory, a way forward on the JCPOA on Iran's nuclear weapons, India's treaty policy, and two episodes on COVID-19 (Episode 1 & Episode 2).
Higher Education
For 15 years of my career, I specialized in editing for higher education.
From 2003 to 2008, I was the editor of the research, academic publishing, and faculty sections of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
I became the founding editor of UMBC Magazine at the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County in 2008. The publication won numerous awards for content and
design during my tenure, including a national bronze medal for
general excellence in 2013 from the Council for Advancement and Support of
Education (CASE), which placed our publication in the top eight university
magazines in the U.S. that year. UMBC Magazine also won a regional gold medal
from CASE in 2012, and Awards of Excellence every year from 2009 through
2013 from the University & College Designers Association (UCDA).
I also write extensively across disciplines for a wide range of university
publications, including Peabody Magazine, Hopkins Medicine, MIT Technology Review, SAIS Magazine, Maryland Carey Law, Johns Hopkins University Arts & Sciences, York College Magazine, Johns Hopkins Engineering, Johns Hopkins Public Health, Global Collaborative Healthcare, and Carey Business Magazine. (See samples of my higher education writing below.)
I have also brought my expertise to online campaigns and the creation of video content.
During my tenure at UMBC, I was involved in larger campus and alumni communications efforts centered on the university's 50th anniversary in 2016. As part of that effort, I wrote and produced videos. Two of them are below. I wrote and co-produced the UMBC 50 video in collaboration with UMBC's Imaging Research Center. I wrote and produced the Retriever Stories video, working with Baltimore's Hartlove-Goodyear.
Higher Education Writing
Putting Ideas into Action (MIT Technology Review)
How will MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles' groundbreaking research on race and justice and political structures inform her new job as one of MIT's key academic leaders?
Can the Concert Hall Be Reimagined? (Peabody Magazine)
The renovation of Peabody Institute's famed Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall
sparks a discussion about the place of musical performance spaces in a
radically shifting environment of audience and performer expectations.
A Noteworthy Endeavor (Hopkins Medicine)
The Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine is an ambitious new
interdisciplinary effort to investigate the powerful connections between music
and healing.
Speak and Save (Johns Hopkins Public Health)
What happens in countries where vital statistics don't capture details of deaths as they occur? Researchers use "verbal autopsies" to fill in these crucial gaps in public health knowledge.