Anh Do is named L.A. Times community engagement editor
The following announcement was sent on behalf of Assistant Managing Editor for Culture and Talent Angel Jennings:
I’m thrilled to announce that Anh Do has been named community engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times.
She will pioneer a new initiative designed to bring our journalism and journalists closer to the people we serve. The goal: to create space for a cross section of society to engage with the staff. As our organization’s public face, Do will serve as a bridge between our community of readers and the newsroom, helping to deepen our relationship with our audiences.
“In a job that bridges our communities and the newsroom, I will give each side the open ear it deserves, finding common ground so they can hear and learn from each other,” Do said.
Do steps into the role after spending nearly 11 years as a Metro reporter covering Asian American issues and general assignments. Born in Saigon, Do is a graduate of USC with dual degrees in journalism and English. She has worked at the Seattle Times, the Orange County Register and Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language publication in the nation, launched by her late father. It was there that she learned how to interact with readers while in grade school. As his junior assistant, she took calls from subscribers, bundled papers for delivery and in those pre-cellphone and email days in the early ‘80s, dealt with messengers, advertisers and story subjects across generations.
From those experiences, she developed a constant curiosity about how groups and individuals connect or collide and how to cultivate empathy in your daily pursuits. She has reported from Cuba, India, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam, elevating on-the-ground storytelling in underserved communities with cultural research and interview techniques honed from five years of living in Mexico City.
As a reporter, her favorite stories found her on the streets, wading into humanity, running up to strangers. She could be counted on to get all manner of personalities to reveal their innermost thoughts — from a cabbie kidnapped by jailhouse escapees and the lone newsman opening up a window to chaotic Myanmar to nail salon chatter and those who call themselves “throwaways,” struggling with homelessness and addiction. Her writing on culture and trauma has won awards from Columbia University and the Asian American Journalists Assn., and she is a recipient of Yale’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism.
Colleagues describe Do as “supremely calm” and “most diplomatic.” These qualities will be handy as she navigates being both an advocate for The Times and for readers, hosting events and serving as a liaison on questions of accuracy, fairness and bias. She will work with the legal department, communications department and top editors on crafting the newsroom’s responses to sensitive issues and serve as a member of our Standards and Practices Committee and Guidelines Committee. Do also joins me and Deputy Editor for Culture and Talent Joseph Serna to recruit and hire talent. She started the position April 17.
