Hanley has worked for more than 25 years as a journalist, writer, professor and documentary film producer, including a stint at Time magazine, among others. He has received seven Emmy nominations for his work in television. At Quinnipiac, where he has been a faculty member since 2001, Hanley played an instrumental role in elevating the graduate Journalism program to national prominence with a focus on multimedia journalism and in transforming the Interactive Media graduate program into one of the most innovative and largest of its kind in the country. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Haven and a master’s degree from Wesleyan University.