Jamal Watson
Content Strategist
Jamal Watson is an award-winning writer and scholar. He is the author of The Student Debt Crisis: America’s Moral Urgency, which received a starred review from The Library Journal. He is currently working on two book projects: a biography about civil rights leader and MSNOW host, Reverend Al Sharpton, and a historical book about Black preacher-politicians.
Watson is the former executive editor of Diverse: Issues In Higher Education. From 2005 until 2025, he held numerous positions at the trade publication including senior staff writer, managing editor, and editor-at-large.
Since 2019, Watson has served on the faculty at Trinity Washington University. In 2025 and 2026, he was ranked by Rick Hess in Education Week as one of 200-university-based scholars in the United States who did the most in the previous year to shape educational practice and policy.
He is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2025 Ida B. Wells Journalism Award by the Higher Education Leadership Foundation. In 2024, he received a reporting fellowship from the Education Writers Association and in 2026, he was awarded the Dr Frank W. Hale, Jr. Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE).
A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Watson earned his bachelor’s degree in English and Theology from Georgetown University; a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University; a master’s degree in higher education from the University of Delaware, and a masters and a Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies from the W.E.B Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Watson is a regular guest on local and national media. He has appeared on National Public Radio and its affiliates, CNN, C-Span and MSNBC (currently MSNOW). He has provided consulting services to numerous higher education organizations, and serves on the board of the Dr. Melvin C. Terrell Educational Foundation.