Dawn E. Garcia

Dawn Garcia was a newspaper reporter and editor for 18 years before being appointed Deputy Director of the John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists at Stanford University in Dec. 2000.

Garcia earned a master's degree in liberal studies from Stanford University in June 2008. Previously, she earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon in December 1981. She worked as a general assignment reporter for the Blade-Tribune (Oceanside, California) from 1982-1983; covered legal affairs and city politics for the Modesto Bee (Modesto, California) from 1983-1986 and wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1986-1991 about San Francisco politics, immigration issues and was on the investigative projects team.

During the 1991-92 academic year, she was a Knight Fellow at Stanford, where she studied U.S.-Mexico relations, focusing on immigration issues.

She worked at the San Jose Mercury News from 1992-2000, where she was Assistant Managing Editor, City Editor and State Editor.

Garcia was a Pulitzer Prize juror in 1998, 1999 and 2006. She also served two terms on the Accrediting Committee of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (1997-2002). She has conducted workshops for new editors for the California Society of Newspaper Editors, spoken at numerous journalism conferences for organizations including the Journalism and Women's Symposium, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists. She has been a leader in diversity issues in the newsroom and in newspaper coverage.

She has taught journalism courses at San Francisco State University, Hayward State University and is an adviser for students in Stanford's Graduate Program in Journalism in the Department of Communication.

She is currently President of the Journalism and Women Symposium, a national organization of women journalists and journalism educators.