I'm Michael Bolden, the incoming Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Journalism. I start there Aug. 1.

I am currently the CEO and executive director of the American Press Institute, a journalism nonprofit that supports local and community-based media through research, programs and products that foster healthy, responsive and resilient news organizations.

At API we focus on civic discourse and democracy; culture and inclusion; community engagement and trust; and revenue and resilience for journalism organizations without regard to platform or business model.

For more than 15 years, I have helped media leaders navigate the complexity of social and economic disruption to serve diverse democratic communities. I have accomplished my work at the intersection of media, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement in senior roles at The Washington Post (where I was transportation and development editor and helped merge the digital and print newsrooms), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (where I was editorial director across all programs), Stanford University, The San Francisco Chronicle, and now at the American Press Institute.

I earned a Master of Liberal Arts from Stanford and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama. I was a Maynard Media Academy Fellow at Harvard University, and I have been certified in diversity, equity and inclusion by the University of South Florida Muma College of Business and the Hearst Corp., where I served on the Hearst Newspapers diversity committee.

My experience provides me with a unique view of how journalism can serve the information needs of our communities and equip change agents to meet them.

I believe journalism is a fundamental element of the American experiment, with a great deal of power and responsibility. For the health of our democracy, I believe the press should be at the center of American life. It has the power to connect and unify the American people. Let's meet the moment.

Learn More
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We, the Press, We, the People

A Love Letter to Local News

The Next Step in My Journalism Journey

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