Colleen McCain Nelson

Colleen McCain Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who is the National Opinion Editor of the McClatchy media company and the Editorial Page Editor of The Kansas City Star. She joined The Star in December 2016 after working as a White House Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and as an editorial writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News.

As McClatchy’s National Opinion Editor, Nelson works with opinion journalists in each of the company’s 30 news organizations, developing strategies and best practices for opinion editors, editorial writers and local columnists across the country.

In Kansas City, Nelson leads an award-winning team of editorial writers and columnists, whose work has trained a spotlight on corruption and government misdeeds while holding public officials to account. Under Nelson’s leadership, The Star’s opinion writers have been honored with multiple national awards, and Star columnist Melinda Henneberger was recognized as a Pulitzer finalist in Commentary in 2019.

Nelson is a former White House correspondent and national political reporter who has chronicled three presidential campaigns. As a White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, she wrote about the policies, politics and personalities in President Barack Obama’s administration.

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 as a columnist.

In 2010, Nelson and two of her colleagues 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 wrote about local and state politics as a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas. She began her journalism career at the Wichita Eagle, where she covered the Kansas Legislature. Nelson was raised in Salina, Kansas, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kansas.