Emmy-winning producer to lead Cronkite sports bureau in Phoenix

Brett Kurland, an Emmy-winning sports producer and multimedia entrepreneur, is the director of a new Phoenix sports reporting bureau at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Kurland, whose work has appeared on ESPN, ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, among others, will lead the new Cronkite News – Phoenix Sports Bureau, guiding upper-level undergraduate and graduate students as they cover professional and intercollegiate sports for news organizations. The bureau will be located in a state-of-the-art newsroom at the Cronkite School in downtown Phoenix. The school has a second sports bureau located in Los Angeles.

Kurland’s 16-year sports journalism career includes stops at FOX Sports Net in Chicago, where he produced content for the Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs and White Sox telecasts, as well as Intersport, a leading sports and entertainment media group that works with many of the major networks. At Intersport, he developed the first made-for-mobile original sports video content for Sprint.

“I could not be more honored and excited to join the Cronkite faculty full time,” Kurland said. “The Cronkite School is a leader in journalism education with its dynamic faculty, fantastic students and wonderful facilities. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to grow one of the nation’s top sports journalism programs with unique, immersive experiences that will further prepare our students to become leaders in sports journalism.”

Kurland, who joined the Cronkite School in 2012 as an adjunct faculty member, has played an important role in Cronkite’s sports journalism program. He has taught the school’s sports writing class and has co-led the annual spring training multimedia reporting class, in which students cover Cactus League baseball for media partners, including MLB.com, The Arizona Republic, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and U-T San Diego. He also created and is currently teaching a Super Bowl reporting class in which students produce multimedia content for Sports Illustrated, NFL.com, FOX Sports Arizona and The Arizona Republic.

“As an adjunct faculty member, Brett was a tremendous teacher who mentored countless students, helping them launch careers in sports journalism,” said Cronkite assistant dean Mark Lodato, who leads the school’s sports journalism program. “We are thrilled to welcome Brett on as a professor of practice and director of our new Phoenix Sports Bureau.”

Kurland won a National Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Edited Sports Series/Anthology and has received four Telly Awards and a W3 Award, as well as Webby Award and Emmy nominations. He holds a master's in business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

The Cronkite News – Phoenix Sports Bureau is one of 10 professional programs at the Cronkite School in which students can obtain real-world experience under the guidance of professionals. The others include a nightly television news broadcast that airs on Arizona PBS, digital news bureaus in Washington and Phoenix, a strategic public relations agency, an entrepreneurial digital innovation lab, a business reporting bureau, a digital production bureau and a newsgathering and civic journalism bureau.