Jack Speer
Newscaster
Jack Speer is a newscaster at NPR in Washington, DC. In this role he reports, writes, edits, and produces live hourly updates which air during NPR programming.
Prior to joining the Newscast Unit in 2007, Speer was a correspondent with NPR's Business Desk. For nearly a decade, he covered the nation's top business and economic news. Speer was part of a team that covered the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. As a business correspondent, he traveled the country doing a wide range of stories, including one-on-one interviews with CEOs, a day in the life of one of the last door-to-door Fuller Brush salesmen and a profile of North America's oldest brewery.
Before coming to NPR in 1998, Speer anchored the Washington Business Journal reports on WUSA-TV Channel 9 in Washington, DC. Over his career, he has also worked at radio and television stations in Washington, Cleveland and Trenton, New Jersey.
Speer has been honored with a number of industry awards for his work including: the American Universities 14th Annual Journalism Award for Excellence in Personal Finance Reporting, the Best Editorial Commentary Award from the Washington Journalism Society, and the Best Newscaster Award from the New Jersey Associated Press.
In addition to his broadcast work, Speer is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's Carey School of Business, where his areas of expertise include crisis communications and media convergence. Speer has also served as a panelist and presenter at national conferences and events and has done a TEDx talk on how storytelling facilitates learning.
Speer has a B.A. in communications from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in journalism from the University of Maryland. He and his wife Colleen Allen have two children, and they live in Silver Spring, Maryland.
