Sewell Chan
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Sewell Chan is an American journalist who is the editor-in-chief of ''
The Texas Tribune ''The Texas Tribune'' is a news website headquartered in Austin, Texas. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events. Its website and content in various delivery platforms serve as an alternati ...
''. Prior to that he was the editorial page editor at the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', where he oversaw the editorial board and the Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion pages of the newspaper. Chan worked at ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' from 2004 to 2018 in a variety of reporting and editorial positions.


Early life and education

Chan, the son of immigrants from China and Hong Kong, grew up in Flushing, Queens and attended New York City public schools and Hunter College High School, where he was the co-editor of the school's independent newspaper, ''The Observer''. His father was a taxi cab driver. He graduated from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
with an AB in Social Studies in 1998 and received a
Marshall Scholarship The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
for graduate study at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
. He received his MPhil in Politics in 2000. He interned for ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' in 1995, ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' in 1996, and ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' in 1997 and 1999.


Career

From 2000 to 2004, Chan wrote for ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', where he covered municipal politics, poverty and social services, and education. After moving to ''The New York Times'' in 2004, Chan developed a reputation as a prolific reporter. From 2007 to 2009, Chan was the founding bureau chief of City Room, the newspaper's local news blog, which "helped spark ''The New York Times'' digital evolution." Under Chan, City Room was part of ''The Times''s 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning breaking news reporting which led Eliot Spitzer to resign as governor of New York. In January 2010, Chan joined ''The Times''s Washington bureau as a correspondent covering economic policy. In February 2011, Chan was named deputy editor of the ''Times'' Op-Ed page and Sunday Review section. While in that role, Chan was named in 2014 to the '' Out'' magazine Out100 list of the most compelling lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the world. From 2015 to 2018, Chan was International News Editor at ''The New York Times'', working in London and then New York. In August 2018, the ''Los Angeles Times'' named Chan a deputy managing editor to "supervise a team of journalists responsible for initiating coverage and developing content for its digital, video and print platforms." In April 2020, Chan was promoted to editorial page editor, in charge of overseeing the editorial and op-ed pages. He was the lead author of a 2020 editorial examining the ''Los Angeles Times'' fraught history with communities of color and journalists of color and apologizing for the newspaper's history of racism. After Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Chan faced criticism for publishing a full page of letters devoted to Californians who had voted for Trump. Under Chan's leadership, editorial writer Robert Greene was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, for his coverage of criminal justice reform in Los Angeles. Chan was named ''
The Texas Tribune ''The Texas Tribune'' is a news website headquartered in Austin, Texas. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events. Its website and content in various delivery platforms serve as an alternati ...
'' Editor-in-Chief effective October 2021.


Awards and honors

* 2021 Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership, CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism * 2021 Special Citation for Excellence in Journalism, Society of Professional Journalists (for the Los Angeles Times editorial, "An examination of the Times' failures on race, our apology and a path forward") * 2014 Young Leader, American Council on Germany * 2012 Marshall Memorial Fellowship,
German Marshall Fund The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a nonpartisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union. Founded in 1972 through a gift from the We ...
of the United States * 2010 National Advisory Board Member, The
Poynter Institute The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netw ...
* 2009 Young Leader, French-American Foundation * 2003 Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, The Carter Center


References


External links


New York Times articles by Sewell Chan
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Sewell 1977 births Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford American journalists of Chinese descent American newspaper reporters and correspondents American people of Hong Kong descent Harvard College alumni Hunter College High School alumni Marshall Scholars People from Flushing, Queens The New York Times writers The Washington Post people The Wall Street Journal people The Philadelphia Inquirer people Los Angeles Times people American LGBT journalists