Dawn Garcia

Director, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, Stanford University

Dawn E. Garcia is director of the John S. Knight (JSK) Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University. The program empowers diverse journalism leaders to succeed as effective change agents, sustain democratic communities, and defend press freedom around the world.
Under her leadership, JSK has built a global community of innovators, and actively supports fellows and alumni working in hostile and oppressive environments around the world. She began her journalism career as a reporter and editor at West Coast newspapers, including covering immigration at the San Francisco Chronicle and was the newsroom leader in charge of a staff of almost 100 reporters and editors covering California and Bay Area local news at the San Jose Mercury News. She earned a master’s degree in liberal arts at Stanford, writing her dissertation on the evolution of Spanish-language media in California and earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Oregon. She is a member of the advisory board for the new Knight Press Freedom Fellowship to support journalists at risk. She is a past president of the Journalism and Women Symposium, and serves on a number of nonprofit journalism boards, including KQED Public Media, the Constructive Institute and OpenNews.