Nelson, Colleen McCain

Colleen McCain Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who is the executive editor of The Sacramento Bee and the California regional editor for McClatchy. While her career has taken her everywhere from Washington, D.C., to California and several points in between, her passion for journalism took root in Kansas.

During her junior year at Salina South High School, Nelson testified before the Kansas Senate Education Committee in favor of legislation that protects student journalists from censorship. The bill passed, and Nelson was hooked. She headed to the University of Kansas to study journalism and launched her career at The Wichita Eagle.

Today, Nelson leads the journalists in McClatchy's five California newsrooms — The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee, The Modesto Bee, The San Luis Obispo Tribune and the Merced Sun-Star — with a focus on reaching new audiences through innovative digital strategies and delivering high-impact journalism. 

Before coming to California, Nelson was McClatchy’s national opinion editor and vice president and editorial page editor of The Kansas City Star. As the opinion leader for McClatchy’s 30 news organizations, she developed digital-first best practices for opinion writing. And as the editorial page editor of The Star, she built and led an award-winning editorial board that included Melinda Henneberger, who won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for commentary and was honored three times as a Pulitzer finalist.

Nelson previously worked as a White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and as a political reporter, chronicling three presidential campaigns during her career. In 2016, she criss-crossed the country with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. As a White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, she wrote about the policies, politics and personalities in President Barack Obama’s administration, traveling the world with the president and vice president.

Before joining The Wall Street Journal, Nelson worked at The Dallas Morning News, where she wrote about local, state and national politics as a reporter and, later, as an editorial writer and a columnist.

In 2010, Nelson and her colleagues Tod Robberson and Bill McKenzie were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, recognition for a series of editorials that condemned the stark economic and social disparity separating Dallas’ thriving northern half and struggling southern half.

Nelson also covered local and state government for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and in her first full-time journalism job at The Wichita Eagle, she covered the Kansas Legislature and the governor’s race.

Nelson has served as a Pulitzer juror for commentary and editorial writing. She is a member of the University of Kansas Women’s Hall of Fame and was a recipient of the Distinguished Kansan award from the Topeka Capital-Journal.

She is a member of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Steering Committee and a member of the California News Publishers Association Board of Directors. She serves as a William Allen White Foundation trustee and has been a fellow at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. 

Nelson was raised in Salina and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kansas. At KU, she served as the editor of the University Daily Kansan.

She is married to Eric Nelson, a fellow journalist, Jayhawk and former Kansan editor. They are raising two KU-loving dogs, Rock (short for Rock Chalk) and Larry (short for Lawrence).