Sewell Chan

Sewell Chan

Executive Editor, Columbia Journalism Review, Socrates Program

Sewell Chan was appointed executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review in September 2024. Previously he was editor in chief of The Texas Tribune. Under his leadership, the nonprofit publication shared a National Magazine Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize — both firsts for the organization. Before joining The Texas Tribune Sewell 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 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 as a local reporter at the Washington Post in 2000. A child of immigrants, Chan was the first in his family to graduate from college. He has a degree in social studies from Harvard and a master’s in political science from Oxford, where he studied on a British Marshall scholarship. He is a member of PEN America, the Council on Foreign Relations and numerous journalism organizations.