Michael Bolden is a member of the Student Press Law Center’s Board of Directors. Meet the rest of the Board.
Michael Bolden is the executive director and CEO of the American Press Institute. Prior to assuming that position in 2022, he was director of culture and operations at The San Francisco Chronicle and a member of the newsroom’s executive leadership team. In that role he supervised a range of coverage, including business, housing, immigration, race and equity, technology, transportation, and urban design and development. He also tried to foster an internal culture that values diversity and belonging and helps Chronicle journalists develop their full potential.
Previously, 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. He’s also been a reporter and editor in Florida and Louisiana.
Bolden is a graduate of the University of Alabama, was a Maynard Media Academy Fellow at Harvard University and is working on his Master of Liberal Arts thesis at Stanford. He also serves on the boards of directors of the SPJ Foundation, the nonprofit that supports a free press, and EdSource, a nonprofit engaging Californians on key education issues.