John W. Fountain, Community Contributor

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).

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 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.