Rob Wells

I was a full-time journalist for 26 years, primarily covering business and politics, at The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Dow Jones Newswires, and The Wall Street Journal. I was the Washington bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires and then the Deputy Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal in Washington. I began teaching at the Merrill College in 2010. I left the newsroom in 2011 to pursue a second career in academia.

I have authored two books: “The Enforcers: How Little-Known Trade Reporters Exposed the Keating Five and Advanced Business Journalism” (University of Illinois Press, 2019), and "The Insider: How the Kiplinger Newsletter Bridged Washington and Wall Street" (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022).

I earned a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at St. John's College in Annapolis and then a Ph.D. in Journalism Studies at the Merrill College. During the 2011-12 school year, I helped launch a business reporting program at the University of South Carolina while serving as a Reynolds Visiting Business Journalism Professor.

After earning my Ph.D. in 2016, I taught for five years at the University of Arkansas, where I rose to the rank of associate professor and led Arkansas' journalism graduate program. While at Arkansas, I ran ArkansasCovid.com, an award-winning statewide daily data and news website reporting on the pandemic. I also partnered with Merrill’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism on multiple projects, including the award-winning “Nowhere To Go” homelessness investigation. I returned to the Merrill College in the Spring 2022, where I teach data journalism, basic reporting and an investigative reporting course in Baltimore.