Edward Schumacher-Matos

Edward Schumacher-Matos is an American-Colombian journalist, lecturer and columnist. He served as the ombudsman at NPR from June 2011 to January 2015. He also lectures at the Columbia School of Journalism as the James Madison Visiting Professorship.

Life and education

Schumacher-Matos was born in Colombia and moved to the United States as a child. At age 21, he received U.S. citizenship. He then volunteered to serve the Army in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star as recognition for his service. Schumacher-Matos gained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Literature from Vanderbilt University. He then earned a Master of Arts degree in International Politics and Economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. He participated in a Fulbright Fellowship in Japan.

Journalism and professorships

Schumacher-Matos founded and became the associate publisher of the Wall Street Journal Americas (from 1994–2003), editions in Spanish and Portuguese designed for Latin America, Spain and Portugal. He was a reporter for the New York Times and acted as the Madrid bureau chief, the Buenos Aires bureau chief and the New York City reporter on the city’s economic development. He was also the founder and editorial director of Meximerica Media and Rumbo Newspapers, from 2003 until 2007. Schumacher-Matos wrote a syndicated column for the Washington Post. In 2007, he became ombudsman for the Miami Herald and held the position until 2011, when he assumed the role of ombudsman at NPR. From 2008 until 2011, he taught at Harvard University as a Robert F. Kennedy visiting professor of Latin American Studies and as a Shorenstein fellow on the press, politics and public policy. In addition to those positions, he was a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Awards and recognition

While reporting for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he was part of the Philadelphia Inquirer staff who won a 1980 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident.