The ambidextrous professor

Lambeth Hochwald’s job demands that she spends hours at a time researching, interviewing, and crafting informative and influential pieces of work for her audience. Is she a professor? Yes. Is she a reporter? Yes. Is she both? Yes.

Hochwald, 54, of Upper West Side New York, is both an adjunct journalism professor at New York University as well as a freelance journalist when not inside the classroom. Hochwald has taught at NYU for over 21 years and continues to hone her skills from her work with different publications and present them to her students.

Hochwald first found her passion for journalism at the age of 15 when she biked to her local paper and learned that she enjoyed holding conversations with adults. “My mom’s favorite story is that when I was eight years old, I went up to Beverly Sills and I guess I interviewed her. I had the gift of gab ever since I was young. I loved talking to people. I always felt like everybody had an interesting story.”

Hochwald, originally from Bedford Hills, New York, received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in an accelerated master’s program from Medill’s School of Journalism at Northwestern University. After graduating, Hochwald worked as an editorial assistant, assistant editor, associate editor, and senior writer for Folio Magazine.

After realizing that working as a full-time employee for different companies wasn’t for her, Hochwald said that she learned that she didn’t want to work on other people’s schedules. Hochwald then switched to freelance writing where she could explore different topics with different organizations such as the New York Post and WebMD.

“First of all, I was able to become a huge presence for my son Zachary,” Hochwald said. “I was able to be present and work my own schedule. It is not something that you can do immediately upon graduation even with a journalism degree and even with internships, it took time to prove that I could go from being a trade reporter to a consumer. I work all the time but I work for myself and I’m very proud of that.”

Through these different outlets and experiences, Hochwald has been able to interview top celebrities such as Luke Bryan, Jimmy Fallon, and most recently, Dave Chokshi. Despite these opportunities, Hochwald’s history as a cancer previvor has motivated her to provide a platform for women with similar stories so that the main focus of her writing is focused on empowering her audience in different areas.

“I did three years of interviewing top celebrities but COVID changed me a little bit in terms of what I wanted to focus on,” Hochwald said. “I had become a little more mission-driven [and now] it’s really the stories about amazing women specifically within the cancer space. I felt like I really had an important way to pivot my career during COVID and that seemed to matter more to me. COVID represented an opportunity; I wanted to do impactful stories.”

Despite years of sharpening her skills as a freelance journalist, Hochwald felt like she wanted to do more with her career in journalism. After years of attempts at becoming a professor at NYU, Hochwald began working for NYU in 2001 as an adjunct professor within its journalism department. Through her time at NYU, Hochwald said that being a professor has proven to be highly rewarding.

“[Becoming a professor] is one of the best things I’ve ever done because it keeps my skills sharp and it helps me know what your generation is thinking about,” Hochwald said. “You inspire me to be better and it’s like a circular thing. I’ve had students that have become my editors. I just got a text from an old student of mine who is now my friend. I feel honored honestly it’s like this idea of paying it forward a little bit.”

Hochwald has seen the growth of many of her past students’ love and careers in journalism. Former student and current reporter for Woman’s Day Taryn Mohrman said that she has crossed paths with Hochwald in and outside of the classroom.

“I have learned many things from Lambeth over the years - especially when under her tutelage at New York University, where she taught a magazine journalism class that I was enrolled in,” Mohrman said. “Since then our paths have crossed professionally countless times, and I am always eager to hear about her exciting new endeavors.”

Former student Peter Lewis said that Hochwald’s class pushed him to break boundaries and change his style of journalism writing.

“[Her] class forced me to step out of my comfort zone and to work on my journalistic voice in a way that I never have before, and I know I’ll use these skills throughout the rest of my writing career,” Lewis said.

Hochwald said that she hopes to inspire her students to further their interests in journalism as they learn through her courses.

“Besides the basics of structure and how to actually do this, I hope you have extensive excitement about what your life could be like as a journalist,” Hochwald said. “It is hard. It isn’t as well compensated as it should be, but I have had one of the most interesting experiences and careers I could possibly imagine. Every single day I’m learning something. Every single day.”

Hochwald hopes to pitch her new memoir, focused on reinvention and rebooting in middle age, in the upcoming months. Hochwald has also pitched a new class focused on celebrity journalism to the Department of Journalism at NYU and hopes to continue doing freelance journalism in the future.

“In the end, I feel like the path that I took is the right one for me,” Hochwald said. “I don’t think I sacrificed my integrity for any stories so that’s a good feeling. I have way more things that I want to do.”