Bio: A 40-year news veteran, G. Fred Wickman has wide journalism experience. After graduating in 1968 with a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Wickman served four years in the U.S. Navy as a shipboard and ashore journalist. He joined The Kansas City Star in 1973. Wickman covered suburbs’ government, politics and lifestyle issues. He also covered courts and government at the Jackson County Courthouse. And he reported on municipal government and utilities in Kansas City, Kansas. Wickman in 1981 contributed to The Star’s Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the Hyatt skywalks collapse. Later he was in charge of the newspaper’s consumer column, At Your Service. After that, he wrote a popular column, About Town, which looked at activities and good deeds of people and non-profits. Wickman left The Star in 1996 to be a freelance writer, editor and news consultant. He served a variety of clients in the profit and non-profit sectors. During that time, he was editor for five years of a newspaper published by a national trucking company that reached 25,000 employees a week. Wickman joined UMKC in 2002 as an adjunct. He teaches an upper level reporting course. Wickman became advisor in 2005 of The University News, the independent student newspaper. He coordinates a practicum for U-News editors and senior staff. He is a frequent journalism excellence contests judge. And Wickman helps coordinate a summer journalism camp at Fresno State University for California high school students and recent high school graduates.