Mr. Kumbula Verified

Tendayi S. Kumbula joined the Los Angeles Times as part of its metro reporting staff. He was a general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Times for 14 years, until August 1982 when he resigned to return to his native Zimbabwe. From 1982 until 1986, he was a news editor and then an editor of The (Zimbabwe) Herald and The (Zimbabwe) Sunday Mail, sister publications that were then the country's largest daily and Sunday newspapers. His duties included supervising the newsroom, hiring, developing and training of editorial and non-editorial staff, dealing with diversity issues, writing editorials, writing TV and movie columns and chairing the company's medical aid committee. He taught part time at the Zimbabwe Institute of Mass Communication, continuing a trend that had started in Los Angeles where he had been a part-time journalism instructor at several two- and four-year colleges and universities. At the end of 1986, Mr. Kumbula returned to California where he became editor-in-chief and editorial writer/copy editor at two Los Angeles-area magazines. In 1987, he began teaching full time in the journalism and black studies departments at California State University, Long Beach. He joined the Ball State journalism department's news-editorial department in August 1989. Mr. Kumbula is the founder and faculty adviser to the 15-year-old Ball State chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, the first such chapter on any Indiana campus. He is the faculty adviser to the Ball State African Student Association. He is the author of the book, Education for Social Control: Southern Rhodesia 1946-76,' and co-author of, The Process of Media Writing. His articles have appeared in many publications, including The Star Press, Muncie, The Indianapolis Star, Africa Report, the African Woman, the Los Angeles Times, Black Issues in Higher Education, The Muncie Times, the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer, the American Editor, The Herald, and The Sunday Mail. He is listed in Who's Who Among African Americans, Who's Who in the Media and Communication, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. He is a recipient of the Munsee Award, the highest civilian honor given by the City of Muncie. Mr. Kumbula is a three-time fellow of the American Press Institute, a two-time participant at The Poynter Institute of Media Studies, and a two-time participant of the American Society of Newspaper Editors summer newspaper internship program for professors. During the summer of 2003, he was one of 20 journalism educators nationally selected to spend six weeks in a newspaper newsroom. Mr. Kumbula received a B.A. from San Diego State University in 1968, with minors in political science and English, an M.A. in journalism and political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.

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