Suzanne Nossel
2020 Author
Suzanne Nossel is Chief Executive Officer at PEN America. She is a leading voice on free expression issues in the United States and globally, writing and being interviewed frequently for national and international media outlets. Prior to joining PEN America, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. She has served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, leading US engagement in the UN and multilateral institutions on human right issues, and in the Clinton Administration as Deputy to the US Ambassador for UN Management and Reform. Nossel coined the term “Smart Power,” which was the title of a 2004 article she published in Foreign Affairs Magazine and later became the theme of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tenure in office. She is a featured columnist for Foreign Policy magazine and has published op-eds in The New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times, as well as scholarly articles in Foreign Affairs, Dissent, and Democracy, among others.
Andrew Marantz
2020 Author
Andrew Marantz is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he has worked since 2011. His work has also appeared in Harper’s, New York, Mother Jones, the New York Times, and many other publications. A contributor to Radiolab and The New Yorker Radio Hour, he has spoken at TED and has been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and many other outlets.
Sewell Chan
2020 Moderator
Sewell Chan is an American journalist who currently serves as the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times. In this role, he oversees the editorial board and the Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion pages. Chan previously served as a deputy managing editor, overseeing foreign and national news coverage; the front page; the Data and Graphics Department; the multi-platform copy desks; newsletters; and the editorial library. He also supervised the home page and audience engagement teams and helped reorganize them into an integrated News Desk. Before joining The Times in September 2018, Chan worked for 14 years at The New York Times, where he was a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy Op-Ed editor and international news editor. Chan began his career in July 2000 as a reporter at the Washington Post, reporting on local government, education, and social services. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Inquirer. A native New Yorker, Chan grew up in an immigrant family and was the first in his family to finish college. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in social studies and received a master’s degree in politics from Oxford, where he studied on a British Marshall scholarship. Chan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and PEN America, which defends free expression. He serves on the board of the News Leaders Association (formerly the American Society of News Editors) and the Board of Incorporators of Harvard Magazine. He was previously a member of the national advisory board at the Poynter Institute.
Author's WebsiteProduced in partnership with the Altadena Library District
Produced in partnership with the Altadena Library District
