Augusta University
David Bulla
AUGUSTA, Ga.(February 18, 2025)—Gary Green, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, will give the 2025 Future of the First Amendment Lecture on Tuesday, March 11, at 7 p.m. in the JSAC Roscoe Williams Ballroom on Augusta University’s Summerville Campus.
Green’s talk is titled “Student Journalism IS Journalism: We Must Protect Their Rights.” Green will talk about student journalists’ roles in countering news deserts and the threats and opportunities they face as young professionals working in university environments.
Green has led SPLC since April 2023. Before that, Green led the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. In that role, Green served as executive director and publisher of Youth Today and the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange and launched in 2021 Fresh Take Georgia, a student-driven, digital news service that covers the Georgia Legislature and other issues of statewide, regional and national interest.
For six years prior, Green served as digital director of University of Florida’s student-driven Innovation News Center and deputy news director for WUFT, the NPR and PBS affiliate for north central Florida. During that time, he managed award-winning coverage — breaking news, daily and enterprise stories, investigative and long-form projects — across TV (PBS), radio (NPR), web and social media platforms.
He co-founded Free Take Florida, a news service that is run out of WUFT. He served as vice chair and on the board of trustees for six years at Florida’s First Amendment Foundation and currently serves on the advisory board of the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
Prior to moving to higher education and nonprofit news, Green worked as a photojournalist for nearly 20 years, including stints at the Orlando Sentinel and Akron Beacon Journal.
Green holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Ohio University and a master of arts in mass communication from the University of Florida.
The Student Press Law Center promotes, supports and defends the First Amendment and free press rights of student journalists and their advisers. Founded in 1974, the nonprofit, nonpartisan SPLC is based in Washington, D.C.
In previous years, legal counsel for CNN Attorney Frank LoMonte, Freedom Forum Executive Director Gene Policinski and National Coalition Against Censorship Executive Director Lee Rowland have been the guest speakers for the Future of the First Amendment Lecture.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the AU Libraries. Support also comes from the AU Department of Communication, the AU Student Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Phoenix, the Bell Ringer and Jag News, as well as the Augusta Press.
The AU Student SPJ Chapter will be giving out several Champion of the First Amendment Awards after Green’s talk.
For more information, contact David Kerns (dkearns@augusta.edu), senior library assistant of AU Libraries, or David Bulla (dbulla@augusta.edu), chair of the AU Department of Communication.
