Before coming to CalMatters, John spent four years as managing editor and senior news director at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, helping lead the paper to more than a half dozen national journalism awards for projects on death with dignity, wildfire resilience and government corruption. Before moving to California, he spent 27 years as an editor and reporter at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, where he oversaw the print production of the paper’s 2018 Pulitzer-prize winning series on the border wall. He was a key member of teams that covered the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson and the Yarnell Hill fire that killed 19 wildland firefighters. Both efforts were Pulitzer finalists for breaking news.
As a reporter he solved the 80-year-old mystery of Arizona’s Hatbox Baby, unmasked a culture of racism and white supremacy in one of Arizona’s most popular tourist destinations and received national investigative reporting honors for exposing the selective prosecution of a young African-American man who was later able to have his record expunged.
John is a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Journalism and serves on its alumni advisory council. He also holds an MBA from Benedictine University.
He is a fifth degree black belt and three-time world champion in Taekwondo and plays ice hockey, but not very well.
Nihon-go-o sukoshi hansemasu
Hablo un poco de español
Sto imparando l’italiano
