Robbie Brown, former editor-in-chief for The Emory Wheel

Chris Megerian was gung-ho about journalism from his first day of college. I remember the first time I met Chris. I was the news editor and he was a freshman reporter. I issued a challenge to the entire news staff: If anyone could write more than 63 articles as a freshman -- the previous year's record -- I would personally pay them $100. Well, Chris reached that mark by March and went on to write 83 articles that year, starting an obsession with college journalism that fueled him through four years at Emory and eventually made him the newspaper's editor-in-chief.

Eric Snyder, general manger for The Emory Wheel

His ability to assemble, train and lead a diverse staff to consistently produce a high quality product is remarkable. Chris' reputation as a top journalist earned him an audience with the Dalai Lama when he visited Emory's campus last year. I have been especially impressed by his ability to see the big picture facing newspapers today. As much a publisher as editor-in-chief, Chris was involved in business decisions that helped the Wheel continue to flourish in a difficult advertising climate.

Salvador Rizzo, current editor-in-chief for The Emory Wheel

As editor, he guided the paper to a string of regional honors. We won best newspaper at the Southeastern Journalism Conference and in our region for the Society of Professional Journalists' award. Those distinctions are a good recognition of the talented leadership he brought to the paper. He made sure every area of the paper thrived. One of his major undertakings was to move us away from collegepublisher.com, where our last Web site was hosted, to a new, more versatile one. Specifically, we wanted to be able to control layout, to improve content organization and add multimedia to emorywheel.com. So throughout his term as editor, he and a small group of other editors brainstormed ideas for the layout, sought out different web developers, selected one and then Chris worked with them continuously throughout the year to straighten out all the kinks. The result is a much more user-friendly and more attractive Web site.

Source | The Emory Wheel
Chris Megerian, The Emory Wheel : Your role as Dalai Lama has been very unique from all previous Dalai Lamas in your political nature. I was wondering how you saw the role of the Dalai Lama evolving in future generations.

Source | The Emory Wheel
From the air, Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez and America’s El Paso look like a single city. But at the ground level, it’s clear that the twin cities are divided by more than a line on the map.

Source | The Emory Wheel
Sitting on the curb, Jay Nelson thumbs his cell phone in between drags on a cigarette. Above his head, the building looms in the sky, the white letters “Grady Memorial Hospital” shining in the blackness.