Eric Freedman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, became Knight Chair in Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University in 2013 after 20 years as a reporter for daily newspapers in New York and Michigan and 16 years as a full-time faculty member at MSU’s School of Journalism. He directs the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. 

Freedman has taught journalism, reported and conducted research as a Fulbright Scholar in Uzbekistan, Lithuania and the Republic of Georgia and worked with the journalism and mass communication faculty at American University of Central Asia as an International Scholar in the Open Society Foundations Academic Fellowship Program. His research interests include international coverage of environmental issues, international journalism practices and constraints on press freedom, threats to environmental journalists and predatory publishing. His current freelance topics range from environmental issues to public policy to auto industry-related litigation. His most recent books are Communicating Endangered Species: Extinction, News and Public Policy, Biodiversity, Conservation and Environmental Management in the Great Lakes Basin, Critical Perspectives on Journalistic Beliefs and Actions: Global Experiences and Environmental Crises in Central Asia: From Steppes to Seas, from Deserts to Glaciers.