Adam Echelman covers higher education and workforce 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 and workers drive every story. His watchdog reporting on financial aid fraud led to state and federal policy changes and an award from the Sacramento Press Club for best education journalism. In a feature story, he followed young men, exploring the real and deeply personal factors behind the so-called crisis of male unemployment and mental health.
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.
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