Sewell Chan, who has held senior editing roles at the Columbia Journalism Review, The Texas Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, will join the USC Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) as a Senior Fellow, focusing on the fight for press freedom in the US and abroad.
Chan was most recently executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review, and an adjunct professor of journalism, in 2024-25. Previously, he was editor in chief of The Texas Tribune from 2021 to 2024, during which the nonprofit newsroom won its first National Magazine Award and was a Pulitzer finalist for the first time. From 2018 to 2021, he was a deputy managing editor and then the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw coverage that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Chan worked at The New York Times from 2004 to 2018, as a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy op-ed editor, and international news editor. He began his career as a local reporter at The Washington Post in 2000.
Chan is not new to USC Annenberg. He participated in panels about local news, in 2020, and rebuilding trust in journalism, in 2021. He was a judge of the Selden Ring Awards for three years, from 2022 through 2024. And he has spoken several times to classes taught by CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan, University Professor of Communications and former USC Annenberg dean.
“Throughout his career, Sewell Chan has been a champion of high-impact, truthful reporting and opinion,” Cowan said. “We look forward to working with him on issues related to journalistic integrity, media and democracy, and new models for local news.”
Chan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and PEN America. He serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Henry Luce Foundation, Freedom House, and Harvard Magazine and on the national judging panel of the Livingston Awards.
“CCLP has a long tradition of being a truly unique way to convene accomplished professionals from across our communities of practice,” Gordon Stables, director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, said. “Sewell brings a depth of journalistic expertise and will be a welcome addition to CCLP.”
“I’m thrilled to join the distinguished community of scholars and practitioners at CCLP, who provide thought leadership for a media ecosystem that continues to experience disruptive transformation,” Chan said. “I look forward to coming to Los Angeles regularly and engaging with the rich network of scholars, practitioners and students at USC Annenberg.”
For more about Chan’s experience, see his bio (BELOW).
As a Senior Fellow at CCLP, Chan will join an exceptional group of scholars and distinguished professionals. A full list is available at https://communicationleadership.usc.edu/fellows/senior-fellows/.
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BIO:
Sewell Chan is an editor, writer, and innovator. He joined CCLP as a Senior Fellow in April 2025, focusing on the fight for press freedom, in the US and abroad.
Previously, Chan served in 2024-25 as editor of the Columbia Journalism Review and as an adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School.
During Chan’s tenure as editor in chief of The Texas Tribune, from 2021 to September 2024, the Tribune won a National Magazine Award and a Collier Prize for State Government Accountability and was a Pulitzer finalist — all for the first time. It also won five national Edward R. Murrow Awards, two for overall excellence.
Before joining the Tribune, Chan was previously a deputy managing editor and then the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw coverage that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2021. Chan worked at The New York Times from 2004 to 2018, as a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy Op-Ed editor and international news editor. He began his career in 2000 as a local reporter at The Washington Post, where he covered city government, juvenile justice, mental health and social services and also helped cover 9/11 and the Iraq War. Chan has also written for The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wall Street Journal and Nieman Reports.
Born in 1977 in New York City, Sewell is the son of Chinese immigrants and grew up in Queens. The first in his family to graduate from college, he received an A.B. in social studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard in 1998. Through a British Marshall Scholarship, Chan then studied at Oxford, receiving his M.Phil. in politics in 2000.
Chan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and PEN America. He serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Henry Luce Foundation, Freedom House, and Harvard Magazine and on the national judging panel of the Livingston Awards. He lives in New York.