Alison Burns

Dr. Alison Burns is an award-winning teacher in the University of Maryland's (UMD's) Philip Merrill College of Journalism and the director of the College Park Scholars Media, Self and Society program.

In 2024, Alison received the Provost’s Do Good Innovator Award for her work promoting and teaching media literacy in diverse community venues, and bringing service and experiential learning to her classes at UMD. 

Alison earned her PhD in journalism studies in 2023 and teaches a variety of journalism and media classes. She earned her undergraduate degree from Merrill in 1993 and worked as a TV and Radio reporter and producer for 25 years, mostly as a Washington correspondent for Cox Media Group’s nationwide network of TV and radio stations.

In addition to her role as director of the Media, Self and Society Scholars program, Burns is researching ways to improve and expand journalism education. She created a “FACTS about Fake News” media literacy workshop with the goal of empowering high school students and others to recognize the value of journalism and make the fight against “fake news” their own. The project received a 2019 Best Practices in Teaching Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Burns was selected as a 2017–2019 Do Good Faculty Fellow to develop service-learning programs that help students improve community engagement. She also received a Making a Difference Award from the UMD Office of Community Engagement for creating a class that partnered college journalism students with local middle school students. In spring 2020, Burns  received College Park Scholars' Ken Joseph Outstanding Mentor Award, for which she was nominated by her Media, Self and Society Scholars students.