Joel McCord has been named news director for WYPR. McCord has been a reporter for the station since March 2003.

In his new role at WYPR, McCord will be responsible for directing an expanding staff of reporters to provide in-depth coverage of the events and issues that face Baltimore and Maryland.

While a reporter for WYPR, McCord covered Maryland’s governor and General Assembly as well as state agencies with an emphasis on environmental issues related to the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays. Special projects for the station included an award-winning series on the Susquehanna River as well as series on both the Potomac River and Maryland’s Bay tributaries. Other special projects covered the environmental, as well as financial aspects, of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and a look at minor leaguebaseball in Maryland.

McCord brings almost 40 years of reporting and editing experience to the position, having been a contributing editor for Chesapeake Bay Magazine (2002-2004); a project manager for Four Rivers, one of Maryland’s state heritage areas, on such projects as “Landings, A Boater’s Guide to the Four Rivers Heritage Area of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County” and “Roots and Tides: A Journey Through Southern Anne Arundel County;” a reporter and editor for The Baltimore Sun (1978-2002) covering local governments, education, land use and environmental issues; and a reporter for Capital Gazette Newspapers (1973-1978).

Over his career, McCord’s work has been recognized by such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, Boating Writers International, Maryland Office ofTourism and the Maryland Historical Society.

McCord received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University in Philadelphia and studied music education at West Chester State College in West Chester, Pa. He served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1973.

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