Staff Reporter, Government & Politics
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Expertise: State policy | Privatization | Legal affairs | Accreditation | Music programs
Background: Since joining The Chronicle of Higher Education in April 2008, Eric Kelderman has covered a range of government and policy issues. He has also employed his musical background to write about the jazz-studies program at the University of North Texas and the Center for Music Technology at Georgia Technical Institute.
For five years before he joined The Chronicle, Kelderman wrote for Stateline.org, a Pew Research Center project that follows trends in state politics and state-government policy. In addition to covering policy areas such as education, energy, the environment, and transportation, he was a lead political writer during the 2004 and 2006 elections, following national races, as well as state governors’ and legislative one. From 2001 to 2003, Kelderman was a reporter for The Gazette newspapers of Montgomery County in Maryland, where he wrote about education and county and state politics.
Kelderman earned a master’s degree in journalism in 2001 from the University of Maryland at College Park. While a student there, he covered the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia and the 2001 session of the Maryland General Assembly for the university’s Capitol News Service, a wire service that contributes to newspapers across Maryland. He also earned a master’s degree in music theory and composition in 1992 from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and a bachelor’s degree in music from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, in 1988. He is a native of Des Moines.
Honors: First Place, Spot News, Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, 2003 | First Place, Feature Story, Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, 2003 | First Place, Education, Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, 2002 | First Place, Political Coverage, Suburban Newspapers of America, 2001
Media appearances: Kelderman has been interviewed as a higher-education expert both for broadcast outlets—including North Carolina Public Television, New Hampshire Public Radio, and WBUR-FM, Boston’s public-radio affiliate—and for major daily newspapers such as The Washington Post.
