Adam Echelman

Adam Echelman covers higher education for CalMatters, focusing on California’s numerous job training programs and its 116 community colleges. He works in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on strengthening higher education coverage in local communities.

In his reporting, students drive every story. He reported that the state declined to help millions of adults access financial aid, even after education advocates presented the governor’s office with a possible solution. Soon after his story came out, the governor’s office changed its policy. In another investigation, he found that California was subsidizing for-profit colleges whose graduates often landed in low-wage jobs. Some of these for-profit schools were also under state investigation. He was an Education Writers Association fellow, which culminated in a two-part series about a novel education technique, known as competency-based education. 

Before joining CalMatters, he worked as an equity reporter at the Modesto Bee, where his coverage of environmental injustice received a California News Publishers Association award.

Adam has extensive experience as an education leader. For three years, he served as the executive director of Libraries Without Borders, a nonprofit organization that helps expand access to information. Under his tenure, he built partnerships with federal and state education departments, as well as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and private groups including the Knight, Ford and Open Society foundations. 

He’s a graduate of Yale University and is fluent in Spanish and French.