Ken Paulson
Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and former president of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center, has developed and led several national programs to increase understanding of the First Amendment and its role in society.
He is former editor in chief of USA Today and former dean of the College of Media and Entertainment at MTSU. A lawyer and journalist, Ken earned an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1975 and graduated from the College of Law at the University of Illinois in 1978. He is a member of the Florida and Illinois bars.
His journalism career included being on the team that founded USA Today in 1982. He also managed newsrooms in Westchester County, NY, Green Bay, WI, Bridgewater, NJ, and Brevard County, FL.
Ken has worked for several First Amendment projects. His passion for the First Amendment accelerated when he assumed leadership of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, TN, which was founded by longtime editor and publisher John Seigenthaler in 1991. From that position, Ken created and wrote Freedom Sings, a program on music censorship.
He founded and hosted Speaking Freely, an Emmy-honored weekly television program on free expression featuring interviews with artists. He also co-hosted a series of seminars about free expression with Seigenthaler and wrote a nationally syndicated column entitled “Inside the First Amendment.”
In 2004, Paulson left the First Amendment Center and the Freedom Forum to become editor of USA Today. While there, in 2007, he founded 1 for All, a national campaign to educate young people about the role of the First Amendment in our democracy. In 2009, he became president and chief operating officer for the Freedom Forum. In 2010, he was named president and chief executive officer of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center in Nashville. Retiring from this position in December 2018, Ken became dean of the College of Media and Entertainment at MTSU in Murfreesboro, TN, in 2013.
Ken continues to be a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors and writes columns on the First Amendment and media issues. He also continues to lead First Amendment programming through his work with MTSU’s John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies, including the online development of The First Amendment Encyclopedia.
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Ken is co-producer and host of NaSHOF's public television show, The Songwriters, which airs across the country.
