Sewell Chan on The Past, Present, and Future of Journalism - UChicago | Graham School
Source: https://graham.uchicago.edu/event/america-at-250-the-past-present-and-future-of-journalism
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:13
Sewell Chan on The Past, Present, and Future of Journalism - UChicago | Graham School
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America at 250
Sewell Chan on The Past, Present, and Future of Journalism
From the collapse of local news to rising threats to press freedom, journalist Sewell Chan draws on two decades at America's leading newsrooms to explore the past, present, and future of journalism and its essential role in democracy.
Date
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Time
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm CT
Location
David Rubenstein Forum
Address
1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Register
About the Event
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, journalism faces a moment of profound reckoning — navigating political pressure, economic and technological disruption, and deep public skepticism while remaining democracy’s essential watchdog. Join us for a fireside conversation with Sewell Chan, USC Annenberg Senior Fellow and former editor in chief of the
Texas Tribune
, whose career spans the
Washington Post
,
New York Times
, and
Los Angeles Times
, for a wide-ranging exploration of American journalism’s past, present, and future. He will address the urgent challenges ahead: sustaining local news, defending press freedom, and rebuilding trust with communities that journalism has too often failed, and what it will take for a free press to endure into America’s next century.
A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the program from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Who's Speaking
Sewell Chan
Journalist and Editor; Senior Fellow, USC Annenberg
Sewell Chan is a news editor, writer, and innovator. He joined USC Annenberg as a Senior Fellow in April 2025, focusing on the fight for press freedom, in the US and abroad. During Sewell’s tenure as editor in chief of the nonprofit Texas Tribune, from 2021 to 2024, the Tribune...
Sewell Chan is a news editor, writer, and innovator. He joined USC Annenberg as a Senior Fellow in April 2025, focusing on the fight for press freedom, in the US and abroad.
During Sewell’s tenure as editor in chief of the nonprofit
Texas Tribune
, from 2021 to 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, Sewell 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 and was recognized with a Society of Professional Journalists Special Citation for Excellence in Journalism for an editorial series about the newspaper’s history with communities of color.
Sewell 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, where he wrote about city government, juvenile justice, mental health and social services and also helped cover 9/11 and the Iraq War. He has also written for
The Philadelphia Inquirer
,
The Wall Street Journal
and
Nieman Reports
and edited the
Columbia Journalism Review
.
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, he studied at Oxford, receiving his M.Phil. in politics in 2000.
Sewell is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and PEN America. He serves on the boards of the 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 for Young Journalists. He is based in New York.
Seth Green
Dean, University of Chicago Graham School
Seth Green is the dean of the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Chicago. Before joining Graham, Green served as Founding Director of the Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility at Loyola University Chicago. During his tenure, the Center launched a top-ranked specialty...
Seth Green is the dean of the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Chicago.
Before joining Graham, Green served as Founding Director of the Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility at Loyola University Chicago. During his tenure, the Center launched a top-ranked specialty MBA program, a globally significant award for social innovation in business, and an array of educational programs that annually engage more than 4,000 learners. Green also served as an Executive Lecturer in Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business, teaching classes on social entrepreneurship and receiving recognition as the Mission-Driven Faculty Member of the Year in 2021.
Prior to Loyola, Green led Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.), a nonprofit organization that prepares low-income youth for post-secondary and life success. At Y.O.U., Green oversaw the fourfold expansion of programs and a $16.4 million fundraising campaign to build a state-of-the-art youth center. He also spearheaded two strategic planning processes, resulting in an enhanced program model and deepened impact. Alongside Y.O.U., Green taught courses on nonprofit management as an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University.
Earlier in his career, Green worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, guiding private sector clients through strategy development and change management. A recipient of McKinsey’s Community Fellowship, he spent one year of his time at the firm supporting nonprofit clients, including the Gates Foundation and United Way.
Green speaks and writes on social innovation. His commentaries and research have appeared in the
Christian Science Monitor
,
Fortune Magazine
, the
Journal of Business Research
, and the
Social Innovations Journal
, and he previously served on the Editorial Review Board of the
Business and Society Review
. Green has been a featured guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, MSNBC, and CNN, and his efforts have been covered by the
New York Times
, the
Washington Post
, and the
Chronicle of Higher Education
. In 2008,
Utne Reader
named him one of 50 “Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.”
Green is civically engaged in Chicago, having served on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metro Chicago, the Impact Investing Advisory Council of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, the Advisory Board of Concordia Place, the Membership and Engagement Committees of the Economic Club of Chicago, and the Advisory Board of the Executives’ Club of Chicago.
A Marshall Scholar, Green holds a J.D. from Yale University, master’s degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics, and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.
Sewell Chan on The Past, Present, and Future of Journalism
Thursday, April 30, 2026 from
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm CT
Register
Back to Events
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We use
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Skip to main content
America at 250
Sewell Chan on The Past, Present, and Future of Journalism
From the collapse of local news to rising threats to press freedom, journalist Sewell Chan draws on two decades at America's leading newsrooms to explore the past, present, and future of journalism and its essential role in democracy.
Date
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Time
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm CT
Location
David Rubenstein Forum
Address
1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Register
About the Event
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, journalism faces a moment of profound reckoning — navigating political pressure, economic and technological disruption, and deep public skepticism while remaining democracy’s essential watchdog. Join us for a fireside conversation with Sewell Chan, USC Annenberg Senior Fellow and former editor in chief of the
Texas Tribune
, whose career spans the
Washington Post
,
New York Times
, and
Los Angeles Times
, for a wide-ranging exploration of American journalism’s past, present, and future. He will address the urgent challenges ahead: sustaining local news, defending press freedom, and rebuilding trust with communities that journalism has too often failed, and what it will take for a free press to endure into America’s next century.
A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the program from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Who's Speaking
Sewell Chan
Journalist and Editor; Senior Fellow, USC Annenberg
Sewell Chan is a news editor, writer, and innovator. He joined USC Annenberg as a Senior Fellow in April 2025, focusing on the fight for press freedom, in the US and abroad. During Sewell’s tenure as editor in chief of the nonprofit Texas Tribune, from 2021 to 2024, the Tribune...
Sewell Chan is a news editor, writer, and innovator. He joined USC Annenberg as a Senior Fellow in April 2025, focusing on the fight for press freedom, in the US and abroad.
During Sewell’s tenure as editor in chief of the nonprofit
Texas Tribune
, from 2021 to 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, Sewell 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 and was recognized with a Society of Professional Journalists Special Citation for Excellence in Journalism for an editorial series about the newspaper’s history with communities of color.
Sewell 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, where he wrote about city government, juvenile justice, mental health and social services and also helped cover 9/11 and the Iraq War. He has also written for
The Philadelphia Inquirer
,
The Wall Street Journal
and
Nieman Reports
and edited the
Columbia Journalism Review
.
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, he studied at Oxford, receiving his M.Phil. in politics in 2000.
Sewell is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and PEN America. He serves on the boards of the 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 for Young Journalists. He is based in New York.
Seth Green
Dean, University of Chicago Graham School
Seth Green is the dean of the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Chicago. Before joining Graham, Green served as Founding Director of the Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility at Loyola University Chicago. During his tenure, the Center launched a top-ranked specialty...
Seth Green is the dean of the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Chicago.
Before joining Graham, Green served as Founding Director of the Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility at Loyola University Chicago. During his tenure, the Center launched a top-ranked specialty MBA program, a globally significant award for social innovation in business, and an array of educational programs that annually engage more than 4,000 learners. Green also served as an Executive Lecturer in Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business, teaching classes on social entrepreneurship and receiving recognition as the Mission-Driven Faculty Member of the Year in 2021.
Prior to Loyola, Green led Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.), a nonprofit organization that prepares low-income youth for post-secondary and life success. At Y.O.U., Green oversaw the fourfold expansion of programs and a $16.4 million fundraising campaign to build a state-of-the-art youth center. He also spearheaded two strategic planning processes, resulting in an enhanced program model and deepened impact. Alongside Y.O.U., Green taught courses on nonprofit management as an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University.
Earlier in his career, Green worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, guiding private sector clients through strategy development and change management. A recipient of McKinsey’s Community Fellowship, he spent one year of his time at the firm supporting nonprofit clients, including the Gates Foundation and United Way.
Green speaks and writes on social innovation. His commentaries and research have appeared in the
Christian Science Monitor
,
Fortune Magazine
, the
Journal of Business Research
, and the
Social Innovations Journal
, and he previously served on the Editorial Review Board of the
Business and Society Review
. Green has been a featured guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, MSNBC, and CNN, and his efforts have been covered by the
New York Times
, the
Washington Post
, and the
Chronicle of Higher Education
. In 2008,
Utne Reader
named him one of 50 “Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.”
Green is civically engaged in Chicago, having served on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metro Chicago, the Impact Investing Advisory Council of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, the Advisory Board of Concordia Place, the Membership and Engagement Committees of the Economic Club of Chicago, and the Advisory Board of the Executives’ Club of Chicago.
A Marshall Scholar, Green holds a J.D. from Yale University, master’s degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics, and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.
Sewell Chan on The Past, Present, and Future of Journalism
Thursday, April 30, 2026 from
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm CT
Register
Back to Events
This is the search overlay. Use the Escape key to close it.
Your Shopping Cart
Enroll Now