Rich Gordon is the director of new communities at the Center. He is also Associate Professor and Director of Digital Technology in Education at the Medill School. directing the school's graduate program in Web publishing.

For most of his career, Rich has explored the areas of intersection between journalism and technology. He was an early adopter of desktop analytical tools (spreadsheets and databases) to analyze data for journalistic purposes. At The Miami Herald, he was among the first generation of journalists to lead online publishing efforts at newspapers.

Gordon majored in history at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also studied computer programming and served as managing editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian, the university's independent student newspaper. He began his professional career at the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, where he served as reporter, bureau chief and assistant state editor. At the Times-Dispatch and later at The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, he began using computer technology to analyze data such as property assessments, regional demographics and patterns in criminal justice. In the journalism field, this kind of work has been called "precision journalism" and "computer-assisted reporting".

At the Post, he served as assistant city editor and projects editor before moving to The Miami Herald. He served there as weekend editor and newsroom technology coordinator, continuing to develop and oversee precision journalism projects. During the 1990s, he designed and delivered training in precision journalism tools and techniques on behalf of the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting.

In 1995, the Herald named Gordon its first new media director. He hired the team that launched an array of Web sites for The Herald, in English and Spanish. He ran the Herald's Web publishing team for four years before coming to Medill as chair of the new media program.