Ghostwriter | Content Strategist | Executive Comms

Like many writers, I began my career as a student reporter. Unlike many of my peers at the time, I was also a first-generation college student from a low-income military family. That experience shaped my career, drawing me to stories about educational opportunity and the people working to expand it. Today, I help college presidents and faculty, K-12 leaders and teachers, former governors and White House officials, and policy experts and researchers turn their insights and expertise into clear, powerful prose.
For nearly a decade, I have worked at Whiteboard Advisors, where I helped build the firm’s content creation practice. I have written hundreds of op-eds, speeches, newsletters, columns, white papers, and articles about early childhood, K-12, postsecondary learning, and workforce development, as well as philanthropy, technology, and business. My ghostwriting has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, Barron’s, CNBC, Newsweek, and Time among many other major publications and trade outlets.
Before joining Whiteboard, I covered higher education for Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education, where my reporting focused on nontraditional students, education technology, college athletics, mental health, and student learning.
Under my own byline, I also write about movies, books, history, and culture. My work as a reporter has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Slate, The Nib, Teen Vogue, PBS NewsHour, and Indianapolis Monthly. My forthcoming book, out Fall 2027 from the University of Minnesota Press, examines U.S.–Japan relations through the lens of the Godzilla franchise. When I’m not writing, I’m usually taking photographs.
Email me at jaketnew@gmail.com.
I can’t share my ghostwriting publicly (that’s the name of the game), but here are a few samples of my work written under my own byline:
What’s Behind Steven Spielberg’s Lifelong Obsession With Flying Saucers and Extraterrestrial Visitors? (Smithsonian Magazine)
Godzilla and the Peculiar Beauties of Destruction (Bright Wall/Dark Room)
Future-Proof: Reimagining Student Affairs for Modern Learners (Whiteboard Advisors/InsideTrack)
The Temptation of Baylor (Inside Higher Ed)
The Ugly, Racist, Deadly History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Slate/Inside Higher Ed)
Sudden Heat (Inside Magazine/Medium)
Herbert Richardson v. the World (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Bill Cosby Isn’t Alone in Turning Sexual Assault Allegations Into a Speaking Tour (Teen Vogue)
What Happened When 26 High Schools Took Part in an Experiment to Help Prevent Sexual Assault (Teen Vogue)
The ‘Black Hole’ of College Sports (Inside Higher Ed)
NLRB Chips Away at Athlete Amateurism (Inside Higher Ed)
In Unprecedented Move, U of Idaho’s Football Program to Depart Football Bowl Subdivision (Inside Higher Ed)
Colleges Inflate Full Cost of Attendance Numbers, Increasing Stipends for Athletes (Slate/Inside Higher Ed)
Education-Technology Start-Ups are Booming (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Moving From Sadness to Reform: Memorials for Aaron Swartz Turn to Discussion of How to Honor His Legacy (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Publisher Threatens to Sue Blogger for $1-Billion (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Hoosier Artist’s Collaboration with Civil-Rights Icon Strikes a Chord (Indianapolis Monthly)
Door-to-Door Sales Persons Linked to Employee Abuse (Indiana Daily Student)