Senior Fellow, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy
National Judge

Sewell Chan joined the UCS Annenberg Center of Communication Leadership and Policy as a senior fellow in April 2025, focusing on the fight for press freedom, in the US and abroad.

Chan was most recently the executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. He was editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune from 2021 to 2024, during which time the nonprofit newsroom won its first National Magazine Award and was a Pulitzer finalist for the first time.

Before that, Chan was the deputy managing editor and editorial page editor with the Los Angeles Times. He began his career at The Washington Post and worked at The New York Times as a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy op-ed editor and international news editor.

Chan received a degree in social studies from Harvard and a master's degree in political science from Oxford.