Russ Walker

Russ Walker joined Grist.org as executive director in July 2008. Prior to Grist, he was assistant managing editor for nation and world at washingtonpost.com where he managed a ten-person staff of editors, news producers and reporters focused on building unique online components to complement the daily journalism of The Washington Post.

Walker joined washingtonpost.com in Jan. 2001 as senior producer of Washtech.com, a site providing original coverage and serving as a portal for news produced by a variety of Washington Post Co. publications covering the Washington region’s dynamic technology community. Washtech.com was relaunched in 2002 as TechNews.com, a Web site focusing on both the national and local technology scene.

Walker was appointed Business editor in 2003 and took on an assistant managing editor role in Sept. 2005, supervising the site’s politics, nation, world, business and technology sections.

Prior to joining washingtonpost.com, Walker was online director of FreedomChannel.com, a political video Web site that covered the 2000 elections, and he was an editor of health care policy and an international affairs publications at the National Journal Group. Before entering the world of journalism, he worked as a congressional aide on Capitol Hill and as a public affairs staff person for a nonprofit health care policy association.

Walker is a 1990 graduate of Vanderbilt University and a native of Columbia, Kentucky.