Jay Schalin joined the Pope Center in August 2007. He researches and writes about higher education issues, primarily in North Carolina, and oversees the center’s Web site.

A Philadelphia native, Schalin began working as a freelance journalist for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey in 1994 and has also written for several other papers in New Jersey and Delaware. In 1998, he returned to school to complete his education, graduating from Richard Stockton College in New Jersey with a B.S. in computer science in 2001. After graduation, he was employed as a software engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation. Schalin received an M.A. in economics from the University of Delaware in 2008.