Charles L. Overby

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Charles L. Overby is a director of the Committee to Protect Journalists and "chairman, chief executive officer, and president of the Freedom Forum, an independent, nonpartisan foundation dedicated to First Amendment and media issues. Overby is also chairman and CEO of two affiliate organizations funded mainly by the Freedom Forum: the Newseum, the interactive museum of news, and the Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University, which educates and trains people for jobs at daily newspapers.

"Overby was named president and chief executive officer of the Gannett Foundation (later renamed the Freedom Forum) in 1989 and became its chairman in 1997. He is former editor of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. Under his leadership, the newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for news and editorials on education reform in Mississippi. He worked for 16 years as reporter, editor, and corporate executive for Gannett Co., serving as vice president for news and communications for Gannett. As a reporter, he covered the White House, presidential campaigns, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Overby serves on the board of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and is a member of the foundation board of the University of Mississippi, his alma mater. He has served two stints in government: as press assistant to Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and as special assistant for administration to Gov. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn." [1]