Kathleen Carroll is a veteran journalism leader and press freedom advocate. From 2017 to 2023, she chaired the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a global organization that helps endangered journalists and advocates for press freedoms.
From 2002 through 2016, Carroll was executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press. As the top news executive of the world’s largest independent news agency, she was responsible for coverage from journalists in more than 100 countries, including groundbreaking new bureaus in North Korea and Myanmar.
Under her leadership, AP journalists won numerous awards, among them five Pulitzer Prizes – including the 2016 Pulitzer for Public Service – six George Polk Awards and 15 Overseas Press Club Awards.
Today, she chairs the board of Montclair Local, a startup nonprofit news organization in New Jersey.
Carroll is a fierce advocate for a robust independent press and a frequent speaker on the threats to journalistic access. She also is a leader on vital security issues for journalists working in hostile environments and was the first journalist ever to address the United Nations Security Council on the topic.
She is a frequent contest judge and consultant on ethical and standards issues. From 2003 to 2012, she was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, the last year as co-chair, and has served on the advisory board of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard.
Before taking the top job at AP, Carroll led the Knight Ridder Washington bureau and worked for the AP in Washington, Los Angeles and Dallas. She was an editor at the International Herald Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News and a reporter at the Dallas Morning News in her hometown. She is married to author Steve Twomey, and they are the proud parents of an adult son.
