About the Founder
JOHN W. FOUNTAIN
A native son of Chicago’s West Side, John W. Fountain is a multi-award-winning columnist, journalist, professor, publisher and author of True Vine: A Young Black Man’s Journey of Faith, Hope and Clarity; and Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood. A tenured full professor of journalism at Roosevelt University since 2007, he wrote a weekly Sunday column for the Chicago Sun-Times for 13 years until November 2022. As a journalist, Fountain has chronicled the story of murder for 30 years, mostly in Chicago. He was a 2021-22 Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, where he conducted his research project: “Africa Calling: Portraits of Black Americans Drawn to the Motherland.” He is author of five books. His essay, “The God Who Embraced Me” was published in National Public Radio’s, “This I Believe” (Henry Holt, 2006).
As a professor, Fountain has taught all things journalism—from beginning news reporting to advanced news reporting, video production and opinion and editorial writing. Over a 20-year tenure, he has taught at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University as a guest scholar (2003-2004); at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a tenured full professor (2004-2007); as a tenured full professor at Roosevelt University (2007-present); and as a visiting professor at the University of Ghana-Legon (2022).
Fountain has designed courses on telling social justice stories, backpack journalism and literary journalism and utilized his professional background and resources to bring noted working journalists and public figures into the classroom to enhance and broaden the student learning experience. An impassioned professor and decorated veteran journalist, he brings to the classroom a wealth of knowledge and experience from being a cub reporter at a big-city daily newspaper who rose to the ranks of national correspondent at the national newspaper of record. Additionally, he has spearheaded multiple convergence journalism projects focused on social justice issues. Indeed Fountain has led students in producing award-winning work to cover the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, to the crisis of murder and homelessness in Chicago, and most notably the Unforgotten 51, a nationally award-winning and critically-acclaimed examination of the murders of 51 mostly African-American women in Chicago. He continues to be a contributing member of the faculty, serving on various academic committees and in activities, organizing student project presentations and serving as a judge, keynote speaker and presenter at local and statewide student journalism workshops and beyond in addition to his own public speaking.
In 2021, Fountain received the Roosevelt University Presidential Social Justice Award for heading a student journalism project on the Unforgotten 51—a multimedia investigative journalism project on the case of 51 murdered women in Chicago, mostly African American. Fountain was formerly a national correspondent for The New York Times and staff writer at the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune, where he was once that newspaper’s chief crime reporter. Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards for his work.
He has been a professor of journalism for the last two decades. Also among the classes he teaches are: Beginning and Advanced Reporting; Media Writing; Feature Writing; Memoir Writing; Column Writing and The Personal Essay; Telling Social Justice Stories; Intimate Journalism; the Convergence Journalism Project; and Mobile Journalism & Multimedia Storytelling.
He continues to be engaged as a professional journalist and columnist, and has won numerous awards. In August 2023, Fountain was awarded 1st place in the National Association of Black Journalists “Salute to Excellence Award” in the category of column writing. Fountain was named first place in winner in two separate categories—large newspapers and small newspapers—for work in 2023 for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Crusader respectively. In 2024, his 50 Cent A Word Substack was a finalist for the Chicago Headline Club's Peter Lisagor Award. In 2024, he is also a finalist in two categories for the NABJ Salute to Excellence Award.
In May 2022 and May 2023, he won 1st place in the Chicago Headline Club's Peter Lisagor Award for Best Column or Editorial From a Large Print/Online Publication. In July 2022, Fountain won a 1st Place National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute To Excellence Award” for Feature News Series for newspapers under 100,000. In June 2022, he was named 1st Place winner in Social Justice commentary from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists; and a 1st place winner for column writing for the Illinois Press Association Media Editors 2021 newspaper contest.
In April 2022, Fountain was named a finalist in three categories for the Chicago Headline Club's Peter Lisagor Award, including as a finalist in the Best Blog Post category for his website, Hear Africa Calling, launched in 2022 while in Ghana, as he chronicled in narrative, photos, video and podcasts during his journey as a Fulbright Scholar. He produced numerous videos, posts and stories also featured on the website. He subsequently won the 1st place Lisagor Award in the combined category of column, editorial and opinion writing.
In Fall 2021, Fountain was named 2nd place winner of the Chicago Journalist Association’s Dorothy Storck Award, and first-place winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute To Excellence Award” for column, newspapers under 100,000. He and his students at Roosevelt University were also named a first-place winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute To Excellence Award” in Digital Media – Graduate – Best Use of Multimedia – Special Project for a year-long investigative project led by Professor Fountain titled, Unforgotten 51. In 2016, 2014 and also in 2011, he was the recipient of the Peter Lisagor Award for best news column or commentary at a daily newspaper with a circulation of more than 250,000.
Fountain was a (1999-2000) Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a 2009 Knight Digital Multimedia Center Fellow at the University of California-Berkeley.
He was previously a tenured full professor of journalism at his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is a graduate of Providence St. Mel School, Chicago. He often shares his inspirational story of going from poverty and the urban mean streets of Chicago’s West Side to the top of his profession. Fountain is founder of WestSide Press Publishing, Chicago, and is author of five books, including his latest, Soul Cries: In Black & White and Shades of Gray.
He is a frequent guest commentator on radio and television. His stories and essays continue to appear in news publications across the country and overseas, including his poignant essay “No Place for Me,” on his disenchantment with the “Black Church,” a commentary first published in the Washington Post and subsequently in newspapers across the country. Fountain grew up on some of the meanest streets in Chicago, where drugs, crime, decay, and broken homes consigned so many black children to a life of despair and self-destruction. A father at 17, a college dropout at nineteen, a welfare case soon after, Fountain was on the verge of giving up all hope. One thing saved him—his faith, his own true vine. He is currently at work on two books: “50 Cent A Word: Diary of A Freed Black Journalist” and “I Love Ghana and Ghana Almost Loved Me: A Fulbright Scholar’s Journey.”
