Alexandra Close is an American journalist and the founder of Ethnic Media Services. She was the executive director of Pacific News Service from 1974 to 2017 and of New America Media from 1996 to 2017.

Early life and education

Close received her B.A from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

in 1964.

Career

Close worked as the China editor in Hong Kong for the ''

Far Eastern Economic Review The ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' (''FEER'') was an Asian business magazine published between 1946 and December 2009 in the English language. Based in Hong Kong, the news magazine published weekly until December 2004, when it converted to a m ...

'' in the mid-1960s. Upon her return to the U.S. she co-founded Oakland-based newspaper ''The Flatlands''. She was also a weekly commentator for Morning Edition from 1984 to 1985. In 1991, she founded ''Yo! Youth Outlook'', a monthly magazine of youth writing and art, and in 1996, she co-founded ''The Beat Within'', a weekly journal written by incarcerated youth. She served as the executive director of Pacific News Service from 1974 to the publication's closing in 2017. In 1996, she founded New America Media, which involved up to 3,000 ethnic news organizations in California, and served as its executive director until its closure in 2017. In 2018, Close founded Ethnic Media Services, a non-profit agency focused on developing cross-cultural journalism and marketing projects to promote inclusive public discourse. Close was a co-producer for the film '' Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien'', which won the

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

in 1996.

Personal life

Close was married to the historian and Asian affairs scholar Franz Schurmann from 1968 until his death in 2010.

Awards

*2011 George Polk Award for Career Achievement *2008 Ashoka Fellowship *2006 Purpose Prize Fellowship *1995

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

Works

"Ben Hur" Vs. "Titanic" -- Nature Replaced God in Film That Speaks to Environmental Age
''JINN'', 03-26-98 *"Fear and uncertainty in the era of change", ''National Civic Review'', Volume 98 Issue 3, Pages 46 – 47Wiley Interscience
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References

External links

"SUNDAY INTERVIEW -- Sandy Close"
''The San Francisco Chronicle'', July 16, 1995

''NewsHour'', PBS, October 2002
"AN INTERVIEW WITH SANDY CLOSE"
''Chava Films'', Martha Wallner {{DEFAULTSORT:Close, Sandy American media executives University of California, Berkeley alumni MacArthur Fellows Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women journalists 21st-century American women