Sewell Chan is an American journalist who is the editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune. Prior to that he was the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw the editorial board and the Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion pages of the newspaper. Chan also worked at The New York Times from 2004 to 2018.
Sewell Chan | |
---|---|
Born | August 29, 1977 Manhattan, New York, U.S | (age 46)
Alma mater | Hunter College High School Harvard University (BA) Oxford University (MPhil) |
Notable credit(s) | Los Angeles Times (2018–2021) The New York Times (2004–2018) The Washington Post (2000–2004) |
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,[1] where he was the co-editor of the school's independent newspaper, The Observer.[2] His father was a taxi cab driver. He graduated from Harvard University with an AB in Social Studies in 1998 and received a Marshall Scholarship for graduate study at Oxford University.[3] He received his MPhil in Politics in 2000.
From 2000 to 2004, Chan wrote for The Washington Post, where he covered municipal politics, poverty and social services, and education.[4]
Chan moved to The New York Times in 2004.[5] In January 2010, Chan joined The Times's Washington bureau as a correspondent covering economic policy.[6]
In February 2011, Chan was named a deputy editor of the Times Op-Ed page and Sunday Review section.[7]
From 2015 to 2018, Chan was an International News Editor at The New York Times.[8][9]
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."[10]
In April 2020, Chan was promoted to an editorial page editor, in charge of overseeing the editorial and op-ed pages.[11] 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.[12][13] 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.[14]
Chan was named The Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief effective October 2021.[12][15]
In 2024, Chan served as a judge for that year's American Mosaic Journalism Prize.[16]