I was born into journalism, on a Saturday in late February, in late morning, in what was then called a “nursing home” in New Delhi, where my father was stationed for The New York Times. He became one of the most influential journalists of the late 20th Century and I spent the first 19 years of my life trying to avoid journalism. I failed, fortunately.

I spent 40 years in journalism, first at The Associated Press, and then The New York Times, finishing my career there as Editorial Page Editor and then Op-Ed Columnist. I covered every election from 1988 to 2016 as a news reporter and then an opinion writer.

I began my career in Denver, with The AP, spent a year on the international desk and then went to Moscow for four years, 1983-1987, first as a correspondent and later as bureau chief, covering superpower summits, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the start of the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Joining the NYT in 1987 as a campaign reporter in the Washington Bureau, I covered one of the worst candidates in history, Michael Dukakis, and then the Pentagon and the White House under George H.W. Bush. In November, 1992, I became Washington Editor, working under the legendary Bureau Chief R.W. Apple Jr., during the first Clinton Administration. In 1997, I became the NYT’s international editor in New York, helped to launch and develop the paper’s first website (and then further versions), among other things. For six months in 2000, I was also acting national editor, running the coverage of the 2000 election recount.

On Sept. 11, 2001, I began a new job, as Assistant Managing Editor for News. It was a heavy news day, to put it mildly. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, I was the primary editor of A Nation Challenged, the NYT’s special section on the terrorist attacks and what came after. The section won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the most prestigious award in American “newspaper” journalism.

In 2003, I moved to the opinion side of Times journalism as Deputy Editorial Page Editor, a job in which I took the opinion report online, live, right away, creating special digital features and hiring the first of what turned out to be dozens of online columnists. By the time I left in 2016, the entire opinion report was live, online, at the best times for publication, while maintaining a rigorously high standard for the print publication.

In 2011, my team and I continued expanding the world of opinion, creating a space on our digital platforms for documentarians to do their versions of the traditional Op-Ed, which we called Op-Docs, a term that persists to this day. The series won two Peabody Awards, two Emmy Awards, multiple Oscar nominations and a dozen other awards for digital innovation. When the editorial writers launched a series on the rights of Transgender Americans, we created a place where — for the first time in the history of the paper, people could upload text and videos about their stories as Transgender people, or their family members and friends. We thought we might get 10 or so. We got hundreds. The series changed Pentagon policy that prohibited service by trans men and women.

In 2016, I was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for an editorial on gun control that ran on the front page — the first Page One editorial in the Times in many decades. After I retired as editorial page editor in 2016, I wrote an Op-Ed column for the Times, and produced a weekly opinion podcast, “Mad, Bad, Glad,” about the news of the week.

I also was professional in residence at the Annenberg Center for Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania in fall, 2016. In spring 2017, I taught a class in international reporting at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. And I was the Visiting Edward R. Murrow Lecturer on the Practice of the Press and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in the fall of 2017. I taught a graduate seminar called “Race, Politics and the Media,” which examined the role of racism in the media through American history, and the media’s role in racism.

In October, 2018, I was author and editor of The New York Times Book of Politics: 156 Years of Covering the State of the Union, and now am continuing my work on a memoir and developing a second career in higher education.

FORMAL CV:

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Harvard University Kennedy School of Government

Visiting Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice at the Shorenstein Media Center (Fall 2017): Taught a graduate seminar titled “Race, Politics and The Media.”

City University of New York Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism

Adjunct professor (Spring 2017): Taught Introduction to International reporting.

University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg Public Policy Center

Professional in residence (Fall 2016).Guest lecturer at a variety of journalism and political science class.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

The New York Times 1987-2018

I came to the Times as a political/campaign reporter after working as Moscow Bureau Chief for The Associated Press, and spent 10 years in Washington, where I became the Washington Editor. I then moved to NY and had 3 major jobs in the newsroom before moving to the editorial department, where I was deputy and then editor, one of the two top journalistic positions at the Times.

Op-Ed Columnist. May 2016-May 2018

Editorial Page Editor. 2006-May 2016

Deputy Editorial Page Editor. 2003-2006

Assistant Managing Editor for News. 2001-2003

International Editor. 1997-2001

National Editor. July 2000-December 2000 (at same time as international editor)

Washington Editor. 1993-1997

White House Correspondent 1990-1993

Pentagon Correspondent 1989

Political Correspondent; presidential campaign 1987-1989

The Associated Press

Moscow Bureau chief. 1986-1987

Moscow Correspondent. 1983-1986

Editor, International Desk, 1982-1983

Reporter, Denver Bureau, 1978-1982

The Rocky Mountain News

Police reporter, 1977

PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS

Editor/author, The New York Times Book of Politics: 167 Years of Covering the State of the Union; 2018

Peabody Award (2013 and 2016) for Editorial Video Series “Op Docs”

Emmy Award (2013 and 2016) for Editorial Video Series “Op Docs”

International Documentary Association Award 2014, 2015, 2016 for Editorial Video Series “Op Docs”

Pulitzer Prize, finalist, 2016, for front-page editorial on gun control

Pulitzer Prize Public Service, 2002, for the special section on 9/11 “A Nation Challenged.” Primary editor of section

HIGHER EDUCATION

University of Denver, Bachelor of Arts in American History.