Michael Bolden

Executive Director and CEO

Michael Bolden became CEO and executive director of the American Press Institute in February 2022.

Previously, Bolden was director of culture and operations at The San Francisco Chronicle. As a member of The Chronicle’s executive team, he supervised a range of coverage, including business, housing, immigration, race and equity, technology, transportation, and urban design and development. As part of his responsibilities, he promoted an internal culture that valued diversity and belonging and developed support for journalists facing online abuse and harassment, cultural trauma and workforce stress.

Earlier in his career, he was a journalism lecturer at Stanford University and managing director of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, where he advised media change agents from around the world. He also served as editorial director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a leading funder of journalism and media innovation. For more than a decade, he was an editor at The Washington Post in positions across the newsroom, including head of the award-winning transportation and development team. He’s also been a reporter and editor at the Miami Herald, the Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton Beach, and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

Bolden earned a Master of Liberal Arts from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama. He also was a Maynard Media Academy Fellow at Harvard University. He is a longtime member of the National Press Club, IRE, NABJ, NAHJ, ONA, SPJ and the Sigma Tau Delta international honor society. He serves as treasurer of the board of directors of the Student Press Law Center, the nonprofit that promotes, supports and defends the First Amendment rights of high school and college journalists and their advisers.

Email Michael at michael.bolden@pressinstitute.org or follow him on Twitter @michaelbolden.