Faculty Profiles

Eraldo “Dino” Chiecchi is an associate professor of practice and began teaching at Texas State University in August 2021, teaching feature writing, photography, multimedia journalism, the journalism capstone project among some of his courses.

Chiecchi is a strong believer in experiential teaching. He takes students to work outside the classroom to apply what they’ve learned inside the classroom, giving them an opportunity to showcase their work and get published.

Among the many opportunities he has given his students, he took a total of 14 students to Uvalde, Texas, to cover the first and second anniversaries of the mass shooting in the Southwest Texas town. The students’ work was published in the Austin American-Statesman along with the students’ bios. He also frequently accompanies his photography students on field trips for their assignments.

He has taught graduate-level feature writing, and has served as chair of various student projects at Texas State and at UTEP. He has taught introduction to media writing – the first class in a student’s curriculum - and the final class in their journalism education journey. Chiecchi also teaches the introduction to photography class as well as advanced photography.

He earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso in his hometown. He received his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 2021, also from UTEP, after writing a non-fiction book titled “Josue: A Young Man’s Life Lost to Suicide.” The book published to wide acclaim and media recognition in May 2023. It is available on Amazon.

Chiecchi also edited a book called “True Border: 100 Questions and Answers About the U.S-Mexico Frontera, which is available in English and Spanish as an e-book. The book was written by some of his UTEP students in a special class. The book received an honorable mention by the International Latino Book Awards. He is currently working on a book called “The Kiss” he hopes to have published in spring 2026.

He began his teaching career at UTEP in 2016, specializing in newswriting and photography. Chiecchi began his journalism career at the El Paso Herald-Post as a crime and education reporter as an intern. He later worked at the Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express-News, South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, Tucson Citizen, The Associated Press, El Paso Times, serving in a variety of reporting and editing positions. His final recent newsroom post was at the El Paso Times where he was a managing editor.

He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame, and was inducted in 1997. He also is a past president and lifetime member of that organization.

Chiecchi is a founding member of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists, founding that organization in 1986 with three other journalists. He is a past board member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a past president of the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and remains on that organization’s board of directors.

Chiecchi was awarded the organization’s Jack Douglas Award, the highest award given by the Texas Managing Editors, for his service to the journalism industry.

Chiecchi has been married to Maricarmen Chiecchi for more than 20 years.