Sree is a journalism educator at Columbia University and a technology expert and skeptic (feel free to ask him how it's possible to be both) who works to help journalists and consumers use technology in smarter ways.
In January 2008, he was promoted to a newly created position at the Columbia Graduate
School of Journalism,
Dean of Student Affairs, overseeing all aspects of student affairs for the
school's 400 students from 25+ countries - Admissions and Financial
Aid, Student Services/Acitivites, Career Services. He had previous
worked as Dean of Students from July 2005-December 2007.
In this,
his 16th year of teaching, he continues to teach in the school's digital journalism program.
In July 2007, he was promoted to Professor of Professional Practice. He
also teaches workshops in "Smarter Surfing:
Better Use of Your Web Time", Figuring Out Blogs &
Whatever's Next, along with other topics, in newsrooms and educational
institutions around the US and abroad.
Sree has been a fixture on NYC-area television for
more than eight years. From 2007 to 2009, he was WNBC-TV's tech reporter, covering all kinds of
technology issues, gadgets and trends, appearing twice a week on Channel 4 and blogging for WNBC. He
had previously appeared for six years as the "Tech Guru" on WABC-TV (he
made 500+ appearances there). He has hosted and helped produce two half-hour specials about technology: Dec. 2007's "Tech4NY: Holiday Gifts" for WNBC and April 2002's "Computers 101" for WABC. He
has also guest hosted segments of "Asian America" on PBS, a nationally
syndicated English program about Asian American affairs (samples).
As a freelance journalist, he has written for The
New York Times, Business Week, Popular Science, Time Digital, National
Journal, India Today, Newsday, Bloomberg, Forbes.com, Sesame Street
Parents, Rolling Stone (samples).
He has been published in several other periodicals, including the Fiji
Sun (in which he got his first byline at 15), and has been a freelance
producer for the "Nightly Business Report" on PBS and a reporter and
editor in India for The Sunday Observer and Business Today. From 2001-2007, he wrote a twice-a-month Web Tips column at Poynter.org (read online and e-mailed to 10,000+ media subscribers)
and for several years wrote a weekly "Sree's Smarter Surfing" tip for ShopTalk, the largest
TV-industry newsletter.
He is co-founder and former president of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists
Association,
a group of 1,000+ South Asian journalists in New
York and across the U.S. and Canada. A former administrator of SAJA's
awards and scholarships programs, he continues to serve on its
executive board and to write regularly for SAJAforum.org, its newsy blog.
For 10 years, he served as faculty adviser to
Columbia's chapter of the Society
of Professional Journalists and won the group's "National
Faculty Adviser of the Year" award in 1998 among 200 campus
chapters.
From 2000 to 2002, he was the founding
administrator of the Online
Journalism Awards, the world's largest new media contest, run
by Columbia and the Online
News Association (a group he helped co-found in 1998).
Sree is a frequent commentator and speaker on
various issues, including trends affecting journalism; technology
& convergence; the Internet; writing for the Web; and South
Asia & South Asians in America. He especially enjoys speaking
at schools and colleges about the charms and challenges of working in
the media (more on these talks and see OJR article, "Meet
Columbia's New Media Guru").
In April 2004, he was named one of the 20 most influential
South Asians in America by Newsweek magazine. In July 2007, India Abroad named
him one of the 50 most influential Indians in America.
Sree
has a Master of Science degree in journalism from Columbia; a Bachelor
of Arts in history from St. Stephen's College, Delhi; a high school
diploma from Marist Brothers High School in the Fiji Islands (he also
studied part of 13th[!] grade at Suva Grammar School in Fiji); a
sixth-grade diploma from P.S. 6 in Manhattan; a kindergarten (or deskisat)
diploma from Mosow; and a birth certificate from a Catholic hospital in
Tokyo (though he'd be hard-pressed to produce any of these in a pinch).
He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Roopa
Unnikrishnan, a strategy consultant, Rhodes
Scholar and world-class sports rifle shooter (and now a blogger); and their young twins, Durga & Krishna. |
Follow @sreenet on Twitter
|