New York Times : An Expanded Role for Sharon Chan

I am pleased to announce that Sharon Chan has taken on an expanded role as my deputy for strategic culture initiatives, with a portfolio that covers the wide range of ways we foster a culture that supports our journalism.

Sharon's role involves identifying and owning opportunities to improve how we work together. Her inaugural projects include working with newsroom leaders and Strategy to identify the skills and cultural shifts we must make to realize our long-term priorities, and taking a broad look at how we can better support managers. She is now managing Marcia Parker, who leads philanthropic initiatives. Sharon is also working in close partnership with Vivian Toy, head of Culture and Careers, and Heather Phillips, senior deputy director of Newsroom Projects and Initiatives, as well as the rest of newsroom leadership, including Jon Galinsky, assistant managing editor, who oversees Newsroom Strategy, Operations and Finance.

Sharon is a natural choice for this role. She has guided varied projects requiring collaboration across the organization, has created and led nascent teams, and has a track record of innovation. She created the philanthropic journalism initiative at The Times, setting a structure for the distribution of funding that advances our journalism and the news media ecosystem.

In her most recent role as a deputy in Culture and Careers, she has put into action much of the blueprint for a better workplace culture and has been instrumental in ensuring the team's cohesion. She has worked on several projects, most recently leading the organization of Career Day, a workshop dedicated to career growth - as well as helping Dean Baquet design his Local Investigations Fellowship and building our first cohort of strategy and operations deputies.

Sharon came to The Times in 2019 as vice president of Philanthropy, building partnerships with foundations and nonprofits to fund the Headway initiative and the Disability Journalism Fellowship. Before that, she spent 20 years at The Seattle Times, where she rose to become a deputy managing editor and op-ed editor after 12 years as a reporter covering beats including Microsoft, education and city hall. She eventually oversaw the product and data teams there, as well as spearheading philanthropic funding of journalism.

I couldn't be more excited to see Sharon take up this new challenge. Please congratulate her!

- Monica

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