Joanne Derbort

Lecturer

Joanne Dietz Derbort has worked as a reporter, writer, editor and editorial leader on both coasts
– at newspapers, magazines, websites, online newsrooms and at a national nonprofit. She was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News in 2018 as a senior editor at the Santa Rosa Press
Democrat for coverage of the 2017 Wine Country fires. She’s also earned awards from the
Society of Professional Journalists, American Society of Newspaper Editors, American Society
of Magazine Editors and California Newspaper Publishers Association, among others. She
volunteers as a mentor at the Op-Ed Project, a national nonprofit dedicated to giving voice to
the disenfranchised, and holds a master of science degree in journalism from Boston University.