Eric Newton joined Knight Foundation in 2001. As a program director, vice president for journalism and media innovation and now as senior adviser to the president, he has developed some $300 million in grants.

Before Knight, Newton was founding managing editor of the Newseum, the world's first museum of news. Before that, he edited California newspapers, becoming managing editor of the Oakland Tribune under Bob and Nancy Maynard, when the paper won 150 awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.

Newton’s books include Crusaders, Scoundrels, Journalists and Capture the Moment. He co-founded the First Amendment Project, shared a Peabody Award for "Mosaic: World News from the Middle East," has been a Pulitzer Prize juror and taught journalism at all levels.

He was named a distinguished alumnus of San Francisco State University, where he received a BA in journalism, and was a Rotary International Scholar at the University of Birmingham, England, where he earned an MA in international studies.

Newton has won the DeWitt Carter Reddick Award at the University of Texas at Austin for professional service to the field of communications. The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation gave him their First Amendment Award for Knight's work to create Sunshine Week.