Al May joined the faculty of The George Washington University in 1997 after 23 years as a newspaper reporter and editor. His specialty is the news coverage of government and politics on the local, state and national levels.

    From 1993-97, he was the government and public affairs editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, overseeing a staff of about two dozen editors and reporters. From 1991-93, Prof. May was the newspaper's lead national political reporter, chronicling Bill Clinton's race for the presidency from inception to inaugural. He was state capitol bureau chief from 1987-90.

    He joined the Atlanta newspapers in 1987, after four years as Washington Correspondent for The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C. He was The News and Observer's chief capitol correspondent from 1978-83. He began his newspaper career as a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat of Little Rock, Ark., from 1975-78. May has won several writing and editing awards, including a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University in 1986.

    He holds masters degrees in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Missouri.  He first came to Washington in 1974 as a graduate student in the  Missouri School of Journalism's Washington Reporting Program.