Founded in 2015, CALMATTERS is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of this country’s largest state and the world’s fifth-largest economy.
I direct a team of five reporters assigned to the California Divide project, a statewide media collaboration to heighten awareness and engagement about poverty and income inequality. Reporters are dispersed throughout the state — including our headquarters in Sacramento — with several embedded in selected newsrooms of daily newspapers.
While continuing to be based in San Diego, I will travel the state regularly to meet with team members, stakeholders and difference makers to ascertain their passions about the most pressing topics of concern as they relate to the disenfranchised among us.
My daily priorities for those on my team
1. Encourage enterprise and story development. 2. Involve those with data expertise early and often. 3. Reinforce watchdog habits. 4. Allow reporters to stretch. 5. Encourage teamwork. 6. Brainstorm innovative digital components.