Evan Smith is a senior advisor at Emerson Collective, working closely with journalists and funders around the country to support local news and a contributor at The Atlantic. He’s also a professor of practice at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches a course on the politics and issues of the moment. He previously spent more than thirteen years at The Texas Tribune, which he co-founded and led as CEO, and nearly eighteen years at Texas Monthly, including nine years as editor in chief and a year as president. Evan is the host of “Overheard with Evan Smith,” a weekly half-hour interview program that airs on PBS stations from coast to coast. A native of New York, he’s a graduate of Hamilton College, which awarded him an honorary degree in 2023, and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, which inducted him into its Hall of Achievement in 2006.
