Clara Jeffery

Clara Jeffery
Jeffery in 2009
Jeffery in 2009
Born (1967-08-25) August 25, 1967
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
OccupationEditor, essayist
EducationCarleton College (BA)
Northwestern University (MA)
GenreNon-fiction

Clara Jeffery (born August 25, 1967) is an American journalist. She has been editor-in-chief of Mother Jones since 2006.[1] When the magazine merged in 2024 with The Center for Investigative Reporting, Jeffery was named editor-in-chief of the combined organization.[2] She is a recipient of a PEN award for magazine editing.

Career

Jeffery was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was raised in Arlington, Virginia, and attended the Sidwell Friends School[3] (1985), before going to Carleton College (1989). She earned a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1993.

Between 1993 and 1995, Jeffery was a staff editor and writer at Washington City Paper. She was a senior editor at Harper's Magazine (1995–2002), where she edited six articles nominated for a National Magazine Award, including essays by Barbara Ehrenreich that became Nickel and Dimed. While at Harper's, Jeffery also contributed occasional articles.[4]

In 2002, she was hired as deputy editor of Mother Jones, a position she held for four years before being promoted in August 2006 to co-editor-in-chief, along with Monika Bauerlein.[5] In May 2015, Jeffery became sole editor-in-chief and Bauerlein was named CEO.[6]

In their joint leadership at Mother Jones, Jeffery and Bauerlein aimed to put greater emphasis on staff-generated, daily news and original reporting. The magazine received a National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2008 and 2010.[7] In 2012, Mother Jones broke the story about Mitt Romney's "47 percent" remarks, which were controversial prior to Barack Obama winning reelection. In 2013, Jeffery and Bauerlein were co-recipients of the PEN award for magazine editing.[8] In 2019, they received the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence.[9]

Besides her work for Harper's and Mother Jones, Jeffery has also written articles and essays for Slate,[10] the Huffington Post, San Francisco magazine,[11] and the Chicago Reporter.

References

  1. ^ "Mother Jones Masthead". Motherjones.com. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  2. ^ "Merger of Mother Jones, The Center for Investigative Reporting Is Official". Reveal News. 1 February 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  3. ^ Werfelman, Linda (22 November 1983). "Teenager Clara Jeffery says she 'used to think there..." UPI.
  4. ^ "Go West Old Man: Where the American Dream Goes Down the Drain". Harper's Magazine. 1 November 2002. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011 – via HighBeam Research.
  5. ^ Lowen, J. Trout (2 October 2006). "Power-Sharing Women Take Over Mother Jones". Women's eNews.
  6. ^ "Mother Jones Names Monika Bauerlein Chief Executive Officer and Clara Jeffery Editor-in-Chief". Motherjones.com. Archived from the original on 14 May 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Awards and Accolades". Motherjones.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  8. ^ "PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing". PEN America. 13 May 2025. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Top Mother Jones executives Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery to receive I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence". Nieman Foundation for Journalism. 8 April 2019.
  10. ^ Jeffery, Clara (26 February 2003). "Can dogs be racist?". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  11. ^ Jeffery, Clara. "Attention Shoppers". San Francisco. Archived from the original on 17 January 2005. Retrieved 5 October 2014.