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Kevin Merida is the former executive editor of the Los Angeles Times. During his two-and-a-half years in the role, the newspaper won three Pulitzer Prizes.
Before joining the Times in June 2021, Merida was a senior vice president at ESPN and editor in chief of The Undefeated, a multimedia platform that explored the intersections of race, sports, and culture. During his tenure at ESPN, he also oversaw the investigative/news enterprise unit, the television shows “E:60” and “Outside the Lines,” and chaired ESPN’s editorial board. While at ESPN, the journalism he oversaw received three National Sports Emmys and 12 nominations.
Before joining ESPN, Merida spent 22 years at the Washington Post in a variety of reporting and editing roles including managing editor for news and features coverage. As managing editor, he helped lead the Post to four Pulitzer Prizes, and the newspaper embarked on a digital transformation that made it one of the fastest growing news organizations in the country.
In his 44-year career in journalism, Merida has covered local, state and national politics, Congress and the White House. He has covered five presidential campaigns and supervised the coverage of two others.
Merida is co-author of “Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas” and “Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs.” In 1990, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist as part of a Dallas Morning News team reporting on the world’s “hidden wars.” He was named Journalist of the Year in 2000 by the National Assn. of Black Journalists and received NABJ’s Chuck Stone Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. Merida is also a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.