Mariel Garza promoted to deputy editorial page editor
The following announcement was sent on behalf of Editorial Page Editor Sewell Chan.
Mariel Garza is being promoted to deputy editorial page editor and will join The Times’ masthead, effective Aug. 9.
Since she joined the editorial board in 2015, Garza has distinguished herself with her clear writing, moral purpose and sound reasoning on the most pressing issues facing Californians. She was among the first to raise questions about the cost of the Los Angeles Olympics (now scheduled for 2028). Early in the Trump administration, as part of the series “Our Dishonest President,” Garza urged California to “cooperate when it is possible, but fight back when it is necessary.” Garza wrote the editorial board’s endorsement of Antonio Villaraigosa for governor in 2018 and its assessment of Jerry Brown’s tenure as governor.
Along the way, Garza has nursed a preoccupation with trash and recycling, calling on California to phase out single-use plastic bags, exposing the misleading term “compostable plastic” and urging us all to imagine a world without waste. Her editorial on the collapse of the global recycling market was honored by the California News Publishers Assn. in 2020.
Garza writes about serious topics with style, grace and even humor. Writing on the shocking failure of airport scans to detect weapons and mock bombs — after billions of investment and the creation of the Transportation Security Administration — she summarized the position of President Obama’s secretary of Homeland Security as follows: “Don’t worry your little heads. We’re taking care of it. Continue to remove your shoes and belts, submit to body scans and keep your complaints to yourselves.” Days later, NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” used that line as a clue.
Garza will help lead an evolution in the role of the editorial board, as we double down on potential solutions to California’s most pressing problems, including inequality, lack of affordability, mediocre schools and glaring racial disparities in health and life outcomes. She will help us think imaginatively about Opinion’s role in live events, short documentaries and other exciting new initiatives that Executive Editor Kevin Merida has outlined.
Born in Indiana, Garza lived in Colorado and Pennsylvania before her family settled in California when she was 11. She studied journalism at San Francisco State and has worked all over the state. She was previously editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Daily News and deputy editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee, experiences that will serve her well in her new role.
