Maura Pierce

BA 1986, American Studies, Purdue
MA, University of Maryland-College Park

Professional-In-Resident, Department of Communication, Purdue
Specialization: Journalism and new media, public affairs, and the humanities

Maura Pierce has worked in media, government and politics and studies the intersection of all three with the digital arena.

For 13 years, she worked at the C-SPAN Networks in Washington, DC, producing programming in a variety of fields. Prior to C-SPAN, she worked in advertising and politics in California, for Washingtonian magazine, and for a lobbying firm in Washington, DC. Most recently, she created a communications program for the Indiana Court of Appeals, including developing the court’s website, and contributed to a documentary on the Federal Writer’s Project for the Smithsonian Channel.

At C-SPAN, she covered the United States Supreme Court, federal courts and state supreme courts for three years. From 1997 to 2002, she co-produced three major live, year-long historical series: American Writers: A Journey Through History, the Peabody Award-winning American Presidents: Life Portraits, and a recreation of the American travels of Alexis de Tocqueville.

As C-SPAN’s first history producer, she produced specials on historical presidential campaigns, White House history, and presidential trips abroad; week-long series on the anniversaries of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Pentagon Papers, and Watergate; and live programs from presidential libraries and museums, political institutes, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives. She also launched the first year of a series on President Lyndon Johnson’s secretly-recorded telephone conversations for C-SPAN Radio.

Ms. Pierce also worked for C-SPAN at the White House, at the Pentagon during the first months of the Iraq war, and on the road during the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. Following the attacks in New York City and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, she served several months as the network’s international producer. On the first anniversary of the attacks she produced coverage of New York commemorations. Before becoming a producer, she traveled to 40 states aboard the award-winning C-SPAN School Bus, conducting short seminars on media literacy and interviewing public officials and historians.

At the University of Maryland – College Park, Ms. Pierce wrote her master’s thesis on the U.S. Capitol broadcast press’s coverage of Congress’s impeachment and trial of President Bill Clinton. She also taught a course on the impact of the Internet on the humanities. Purdue honored her as an Old Master in 2002.

Ms. Pierce teaches Journalism, New Media and Convergent Technologies and serves as an adviser to the Purdue Exponent.