Kelly A. Whiteside

Kelly Whiteside has been an adjunct professor for Columbia Journalism School’s Sports Reporting class for 15 years and currently co-teaches the class with Sean Gregory. She is also a professor of sports media and journalism at Montclair State University.
She spent 14 years at USA Today as the national college football writer and also specialized in covering the Olympics and World Cup. She has covered eight Olympic Games, nine World Cups (men's and women's), as well as many college football and college basketball national championships, World Series, NBA and NHL playoffs. 

Whiteside served on the 13-member College Football Playoff Selection Committee for three years. She was the first female president of the Football Writers Association of America and was the first woman inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2025. 
Whiteside is also a former reporter at Newsday and staff writer at Sports Illustrated and her work has appeared in The New York Times. She is the author/co-author of three books and a recipient of two Sports Emmy Awards for her work on the 2024 Paris Olympics with NBC Sports.

A resident of Montclair, N.J, Whiteside holds a B.A. in English/Journalism from Rutgers University, where she played soccer before her ACL gave out and she joined the school newspaper. She holds her M.S. from the J-School.