About

Matt Sheehan is a journalist and MBA and is working as a new media consultant. Previously he was assistant to the dean for Web strategies at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and was an assistant news editor at the Washington Post.

He’s working now with MadMariner LLC, a new media startup focused on coverage of the boating industry and market, as chief operating officer. At Mariner, he’s focused on cost containment, developing growth strategies and the replatform and redesign of Mariner and its network of sites.

While at Merrill, Sheehan worked closely with two deans and the faculty to further integrate multimedia and multi-platform journalism skills throughout the curriculum. He was the chief online strategist and developer for the college and was a primary designer of the college’s capstone requirement and 1-credit paired colloquium which emphasizes entrepreneurial, innovative and collaborative skills. He has worked with multiple faculty members to develop interactive and online outlets for student work.

Sheehan is a former adjunct professor in visual journalism at Merrill. His syllabus was adopted as the standard for the college’s required graphics course. He has taught graphics and news design to students at the college, high school and post-graduate level, including as an instructor for the American Society of Newspaper Editors High School Journalism Institute, the Maryland-District of Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the Washington Post’s Young Journalist Development Program.

He has been published in The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, St. Petersburg Times and American Journalism Review. He was editor and vice president at Maryland Media Inc, the publisher of the University of Maryland’s independent daily newspaper The Diamondback, and served as managing editor for a year and a half previously (named ME spring semester his freshman year). He’s been working in journalism since high school where he was a staffer at The Item, the newspaper in Sumter, S.C.

In his free time you’ll often find him in the kitchen or pampering his six-year-old yellow Lab rescue, Max.