Research Bio

Formerly the CEO and Executive Director of the American Press Institute (API), Dean Michael D. Bolden has had a distinguished career that has taken him from the New Orleans Times-Picayune to the University of California, Berkeley. 

He has worked as a local reporter and national editor, a teacher and nonprofit leader. For more than 15 years, he has helped media leaders navigate the complexity of social and economic disruption to serve diverse democratic communities. He has accomplished this work at the intersection of media, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement in senior roles at The Washington Post (where he helped merge the digital and print newsrooms), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Stanford University, the San Francisco Chronicle, and API.

He is the Dean and Professor of the School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is preparing the next generation of journalists to meet the evolving information needs of a complex, diverse society.

Research Expertise and Interest

community-engaged journalism, media transformation, press freedom, equity in journalism, local news reporting