Staff Index
USA TODAY's Editorial Board
USA TODAY's Editorial Board, which forms the opinions expressed in USA TODAY's editorials, is the staff of the newspaper's opinion section. Its members are selected by USA TODAY's editorial page editor with a goal of reflecting the diversity of the nation's conversation. The board operates by consensus and reaches its opinions independently from any other part of USA TODAY or its parent company, Gannett. It is not aligned with either political party and, since the newspaper's founding in 1982, has never endorsed any political candidate. More broadly, the Editorial Board strives to present an opinion section online and in print that reflects the fullness of the national dialogue — offering commentary from columnists, readers and its own writers on a wide range of issues from many perspectives.
Brian Gallagher
Brian Gallagher, the editor of the editorial page, is in charge of USA TODAY's opinion section and leads its Editorial Board. Gallagher has served two stints in the job, most recently since 2004 and previously from 1999 to 2002. In between he was the newspaper's executive editor. Gallagher has worked with or for USA TODAY since its creation in 1982. At the time, he was an editor supervising 11 state capital bureaus for a national news service maintained by USA TODAY's parent company, Gannett. He was later appointed the news service's managing editor, and in that capacity headed the Washington bureau that served both USA TODAY and Gannett's local newspapers. He moved to the Editorial Board as a writer in 1986 and was named deputy editorial page editor five years later. Gallagher was born in 1948, grew up in suburban New York and began his career at local newspapers. Investigative projects he directed have won several national awards, and he's also been a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Bill Sternberg
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Bill Sternberg has been deputy editorial page editor since 2004. His responsibilities include assigning and editing debates and editorials. Previously, as senior assignment editor and Washington editor, Sternberg planned and executed coverage of the Clinton impeachment scandal, the 2000 election and recount, the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before joining USA TODAY in 1997, he was Washington bureau chief for Thomson Newspapers and a reporter for The (Syracuse) Post-Standard and Crain's New York Business. He is the co-author of Feeding Frenzy: The Inside Story of Wedtech (Holt: 1988), and his prizes include the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism ("Cooked Books," The Atlantic Monthly, 1992). He was born in 1956 in Brooklyn, N.Y., grew up in Guilderland, N.Y., and graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. degree in American Studies.
Dan Carney
Dan Carney has been an editorial writer since February 2003. He writes on a range of topics, principally those related to economics, business, taxation and federal spending. Before joining USA TODAY, he was a Washington correspondent for BusinessWeek. He has also been a Washington-based reporter for Congressional Quarterly, the Houston Post and States News Service. He started his journalism career in North Carolina at The Fayetteville Observer. He is a graduate of Reed College and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer assigned to Benin in West Africa. He was born in 1960 in Dallas and now lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his wife and daughter.
Thuan Le Elston
Thuan Le Elston has been operations editor since 2005. Her responsibilities include page layout, copy editing, and print and online publishing. Previously, she was a news copy editor for USA TODAY and a news reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She was born in South Vietnam in 1966 and left a week before Saigon fell in 1975. She received a B.A. in journalism from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. One of her few non-journalism jobs was a speaking role in Oliver Stone's movie Heaven and Earth. She's married with four children.
George Hager
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George Hager has been an editorial writer since 2006. He writes about a range of topics, including fiscal policy, health reform, Congress and the Supreme Court. Before joining the Editorial Board, he was USA TODAY's White House editor, national security editor and economics correspondent. He covered economics for The Washington Post, was an editor and reporter for Congressional Quarterly, and covered Washington, Central America, energy issues and the criminal courts for The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. He is co-author of Balancing Act: Washington's Troubled Path to a Balanced Budget, (Times Books: 1997; Vintage Books: 1998). Formerly a regular host of C-Span's Saturday Washington Journal TV show, he won the 1996 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. Born in 1950 in New York City, he has a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and is a private pilot with an instrument rating.
David Mastio
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David Mastio rejoined USA Today as forum editor in 2012. Previously, he was a USA Today editorial writer and assistant forum editor first hired by the paper in 1995. In his years away from USA Today he was founding editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner, deputy editorial page editor and senior editor for online opinion at The Washington Times, an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot and a Washington correspondent for The Detroit News. Outside of newspapers, he was a speechwriter for United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and founded BlogNetNews.com, which tracked the best state and local news-focused blogs in all 50 states. He was born in Mons, Belgium and has lived in eight states from California to Virginia. He's a 1995 graduate of the University of Iowa journalism school.
Glen Nishimura
Glen Nishimura has been op-ed/Forum page editor since June 1991. His responsibilities include assigning and editing op-ed columns. Nishimura arrived at USA TODAY shortly after the 1982 start-up. He began as an assistant editor on the Washington desk and then became Special Topics team editor before moving on to the editorial staff as a writer and then op-ed editor. Born in 1948 in Los Angeles and a graduate of California State University-Los Angeles, his first job was at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, where he went from copy editor to news editor during an 11-year stint. He then moved to The Boston Globe, where he worked for two years before joining USA TODAY.
Michelle Poblete
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Michelle Poblete has been letters editor since 2008. She selects and edits letters for publication, and acts as a liaison between readers and USA TODAY editors. Previously, she worked for three years on the news copy desk at the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. She also was a copy editor at Gannett News Service. She was born in 1972 in Washington, D.C., and grew up in McLean, Va. She has a bachelor's degree in history from Duke University and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
Eileen Rivers
Eileen Rivers has been the Web content editor since November 2008. Before joining USA TODAY, she was a copy editor for The Washington Post's Metro section, and also wrote for the Post's Real Estate, Metro, Style and Arts sections for eight years. Before that, she was a reporter for The Augusta (Ga.) Focus, where she won a Phoenix award for investigative journalism for a series on the experiences of the first female firefighters admitted to the Augusta/Richmond County Fire Department. Before entering journalism, she was an Arabic and Spanish linguist in the U.S. Army; studied Arabic at the Army's Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif.; and lived and worked in Kuwait, Ecuador and Honduras. She was born in 1973 in Aberdeen, Md., raised in Severn, Md., and graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. degree in journalism and a minor in linguistics.
Saundra Torry
Saundra Torry has been an editorial writer since 1999. She writes about a wide range of legal, homeland security, air safety, consumer and sports issues. A 1971 graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, she was a reporter at The Chicago Daily News until the paper ceased publication in 1978. She moved to The Washington Post, where she covered everything from Congress to legal affairs. She wrote the Post's Lawyers column for seven years. Torry has won writing awards from the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild and the Scripps Howard Foundation. She was born in 1949 in Pittsburgh and grew up in the Cleveland suburbs. She lives in suburban Virginia with her husband, Jack, her dog, Biscuit, and her cat, Cashey.