Rick Dunham is co-director of the Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University and a visiting professor in the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication. 

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Mr. Dunham is a veteran Washington journalist and former president of the National Press Club. He covered the White House for Business Week magazine and the  Houston Chronicle and has written about every U.S. presidential election since 1980.

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He is the author of the textbook, “Multimedia Reporting" (Springer, 2019) and co-editor of Springer’s Tsinghua Global Business Journalism book series. He wrote "The Global Business Journalism Handbook" (Tsinghua, 2023) and is co-editor of "The Routledge Companion for Business Journalism" (Routledge, 2023).

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From 1992 to July 2007, Mr. Dunham was a Washington correspondent for Business Week, covering issues as diverse as the federal budget, international trade and the Clinton and Bush White Houses. He also was Washington Outlook editor and a weekly columnist for BusinessWeek.com. From 2007 to 2013 he was Washington bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle, where he created the popular blog “Texas on the Potomac.” He also served as Hearst Newspapers Washington bureau chief from 2009 to 2012.

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Mr. Dunham earlier spent seven years in the Washington bureau of the Dallas Times Herald, covering Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court. He also worked on the city desk reporter in Dallas and the state capital bureau in Austin. His journalism prizes include awards for breaking news, beat reporting, regional reporting, feature writing and public service.

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During three decades in Washington, he appeared on C-SPAN, CNN, ABC, CNBC, MSNBC, the PBS News Hour and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He also has offered news analysis for outlets including the BBC, National Public Radio, ABC Radio, Fox News Channel. From 2005 to 2009, he wrote a “Letter from America” column for the Finnish newspaper Aamulehti explaining U.S. politics and culture to an international audience.

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Since arriving in China, Mr. Dunham has offered regular news analysis for CCTV’s China Global Television Network and China Radio International, along with international news outlets from countries including the United States, Russia, the Philippines, Denmark, Estonia and Finland. He has trained professional journalists, journalism students and journalism educators in locations including the United States, China, Finland, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Macau and the Philippines.

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Mr. Dunham is on the cutting edge of journalism education and training in both Asia and America, having served as president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute from 2006 to 2013. He has conducted global webinars, taught classes and hosted panel discussions on journalism skills, digital content, social media and journalism ethics. In China, he has participated in international journalism conferences and has conducted more than 40 lectures and workshops for journalism students and professionals across the  country. He also created the USA Summer Journalism Training Program, an intensive two-week training program for international students, and is planning to host a winter journalism training program in Europe in 2024.

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From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Dunham was a mentor with the UNITY Mentor Program for young journalists of color, where he worked one-on-one with young journalists and taught workshops on journalism skills. He has lectured to classes at U.S. institutions including Texas A&M University, the University of Alabama, the University of Oklahoma, Purdue University, American University, Boston University, Towson State University, Carleton College, Sam Houston State University, Flagler College, and the Organization of American States.

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Mr. Dunham also has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In addition to his recent books, he has contributed to six other books (including "The Founding City" (Chilton Books, 1976), "The Handbook of Campaign Spending" (Congressional Quarterly Press, 1992), and “The Almanac of the Unelected” (Bernan Press, 2006). He wrote a new foreword to the 60th anniversary edition of his grandfather Barrows Dunham’s classic philosophy book, “Man Against Myth,” which was republished in 2007 by the National Book Trust of India. He wrote the foreword for “Alternative Truths: Post-Election America" (B Cubed Press, 2017).

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From 1992 to 1999, Mr. Dunham served on the Executive Committee of Periodical Correspondents, which oversees the press galleries on Capitol Hill for more than 2,000 news magazine and newsletter correspondents. As Executive Committee chairman from 1995 to 1997, he helped to coordinate press logistics for the national conventions and presidential inauguration.

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A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Dunham holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania. He is married to Pam Tobey, a longtime graphics and data specialist at the Washington Post who now works as visuals director at Beijing Review.