Joel Simon

Biographical Information
Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "Under Simon's leadership, CPJ has been honored with the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights and a News & Documentary Emmy for its work in defense of press freedom. Simon joined CPJ in 1997 as Americas program coordinator and was deputy director from 2000 until his appointment as executive director in 2006. Simon began his career as a journalist in Latin America. He covered the Guatemalan civil war, the Zapatista uprising in Southern Mexico, the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the economic turmoil in Cuba following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is the author of Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge (Sierra Club Books, 1997). He is a graduate of Amherst College and Stanford University."