Title: Vice President, Journalism Program

Organization: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Eric Newton is vice president of the journalism program for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Since 2001, he has developed more than $250 million in grants to advance quality journalism, freedom of expression and media innovation worldwide.

Before Knight, Newton was founding managing editor of the Newseum. Much of his original work as its chief content creator remains in the world's first major museum of news in Washington, D.C.

Newton began his journalism career as a newspaper editor in Northern California. At the Oakland Tribune, he was managing editor under owners Bob and Nancy Maynard, when the newspaper won 150 journalism awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.

Newton's book projects include Crusaders, Scoundrels, Journalists; Capture the Moment and News in a New America. He co-founded the First Amendment Project, shared in a Peabody award for "Mosaic: World News from the Middle East" and is a four-time Pulitzer Prize juror.

Newton has a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Francisco State University, where he was named a distinguished alumni. He holds a master's degree in international studies from the University of Birmingham, England, where he was a Rotary International Scholar. He has taught journalism at all levels.

In 2008, Newton won the DeWitt Carter Reddick Award at the University of Texas at Austin, honoring professional service to the field of communications. In 2009, he was recognized by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation's First Amendment Award for Knight Foundation's work to create Sunshine Week.