Don Belt

Don Belt has worked for 30 years as an award-winning writer and editor for National Geographic. He now teaches journalism at the University of Richmond and serves as the university outreach director of Paul Salopek's Out of Eden Walk.
As senior editor of the National Geographic from 1998 to 2010, Don helped to guide the magazine's coverage of topics ranging from weapons of mass destruction to the legacy of colonialism in the modern Middle East.
As a foreign correspondent, Don has traveled to 80 countries and authored major articles on Russia's Lake Baikal, Sweden, Baja California, Mongolia, Israel's Galilee, ancient Petra, the Golan Heights, Lawrence of Arabia, Islam, the European Union, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Syria, Arab Christians, and Cold War science in the Russian Arctic. His article about the Jordan River was featured in National Geographic's April 2010 issue devoted to Water, which won the National Magazine Award.
Don has taught dozens of writing courses and workshops, and delivered lectures at institutions of higher learning including Harvard Law School, George Washington University, the University of San Diego, San Diego State University, the University of South Carolina, Hood College, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond, Oregon State University, Deloitte University, and the Chautauqua Institution, where he gave the keynote address in a week-long program about Water.
In his Walk on Campus Workshop, Don shares his "Slow Journalism in a Fast World" curriculum (developed at VCU and the University of Richmond) to raise awareness of the Out of Eden project as a resource for educators in fields such as journalism, geography, anthropology, history, international studies, environmental science, and religion.