Bob Sipchen
Encyclopedia
Bob Sipchen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and currently the Communications Director of the Sierra Club
, America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. Sipchen serves as Editor-in-Chief of Sierra magazine, a national publication with a circulation of approximately 600,000. As Associate Editor of the Los Angeles Times editorial pages he, along with colleague Alex Raskin, won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Their series explored "the issues and dilemmas provoked by mentally ill people dwelling on the streets," and also won the Society of Professional Journalists' highest award, the Sigma Delta Chi. Sipchen also shared in the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for the Times team coverage of the Los Angeles riots.
Sipchen, who paid his way through college as a hotshot wildland firefighter and patrolman with the U.S. Forest Service, was graduated cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara
, which granted him the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006. At UCSB,he was a student and protege of influential journalist and educator Barry Farrell (journalist)
Barry Farrell
His career at the Times included serving as editor of the Sunday Opinion section and senior editor of the Times's Sunday magazine. He led the team of journalists that created the newspaper's popular Outdoors section in print and on the web. As a reporter he covered the riots that erupted in Los Angeles following the trial of police officers involved in the beating of motorist Rodney King and shared in the newspaper's Pulitzer Prize for that reportage. He also wrote about cultural issues, politics, covered a presidential campaign and wrote a column for the Times about the magazine industry. In 1997, Sipchen loaded his wife and three children into a 26-foot motorhome and drove 22,000 miles through 46 states, including Alaska, writing twice-a-week columns about the state of the American family. In 2006 he created the "School Me" column and multi-media "School Me!" blog which explored education issues.
Sipchen left the Los Angeles Times in 2007 to edit the 110-year-old Sierra magazine. In 2009 he was promoted to Communications Director for the organization, overseeing a national staff of about 60 multi-media professionals responsible for the Club's messaging, branding, advocacy journalism, social media, and press and public relations.
An adjunct professor at Occidental College
in Los Angeles since 1997, Sipchen teaches news writing in the fall and narrative non-fiction in the spring, using a team teaching approach that has included as many as eight Pulitzer Prize winning journalists in a calendar year.
Sipchen serves on the advisory committee of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, based at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
, America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. Sipchen serves as Editor-in-Chief of Sierra magazine, a national publication with a circulation of approximately 600,000. As Associate Editor of the Los Angeles Times editorial pages he, along with colleague Alex Raskin, won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Their series explored "the issues and dilemmas provoked by mentally ill people dwelling on the streets," and also won the Society of Professional Journalists' highest award, the Sigma Delta Chi. Sipchen also shared in the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for the Times team coverage of the Los Angeles riots.
Sipchen, who paid his way through college as a hotshot wildland firefighter and patrolman with the U.S. Forest Service, was graduated cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
, which granted him the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006. At UCSB,he was a student and protege of influential journalist and educator Barry Farrell (journalist)
Barry Farrell (journalist)
Barry Farrell was an American journalist and editor who wrote for numerous magazines. He worked for Time, Life and Harper's Magazines in the 1960s and 1970s. He also wrote a book about Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal entitled Pat and Roald.-Early life:Farrell was a native of Seattle, Washington...
Barry Farrell
His career at the Times included serving as editor of the Sunday Opinion section and senior editor of the Times's Sunday magazine. He led the team of journalists that created the newspaper's popular Outdoors section in print and on the web. As a reporter he covered the riots that erupted in Los Angeles following the trial of police officers involved in the beating of motorist Rodney King and shared in the newspaper's Pulitzer Prize for that reportage. He also wrote about cultural issues, politics, covered a presidential campaign and wrote a column for the Times about the magazine industry. In 1997, Sipchen loaded his wife and three children into a 26-foot motorhome and drove 22,000 miles through 46 states, including Alaska, writing twice-a-week columns about the state of the American family. In 2006 he created the "School Me" column and multi-media "School Me!" blog which explored education issues.
Sipchen left the Los Angeles Times in 2007 to edit the 110-year-old Sierra magazine. In 2009 he was promoted to Communications Director for the organization, overseeing a national staff of about 60 multi-media professionals responsible for the Club's messaging, branding, advocacy journalism, social media, and press and public relations.
An adjunct professor at Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
in Los Angeles since 1997, Sipchen teaches news writing in the fall and narrative non-fiction in the spring, using a team teaching approach that has included as many as eight Pulitzer Prize winning journalists in a calendar year.
Sipchen serves on the advisory committee of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, based at Teachers College, Columbia University.