With an extensive
background in newspaper journalism, magazine and book
writing, Doug Root has been a leader in the Endowments’
expansion of its internal and external communications
efforts. Named communications director in 2005 after
four years with the foundation, he and a staff of three
serve a wide range of communications functions.
Doug works with the media, acting as spokesman for the
Endowments, but he also works with journalists in
shaping coverage. He is one of the founders of h, a
full-color, quarterly magazine that uses narrative
writing and documentary-style photography to explain the
work of the foundation and its grantees. He also directs
production of other internal publications, the writing
and editing of Endowments speeches and materials for the
foundation’s Web site.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from
Pennsylvania State University, Doug began his writing
and communications career as a reporter for a small
suburban newspaper. He then moved to The Pittsburgh
Press, where he rose to become an award-winning senior
writer for the Sunday magazine. When the newspaper was
sold in 1994, he left daily newspaper work and completed
an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship for
documentary journalism. He has written for more than a
dozen national and regional magazines and is the author
of two nonfiction books, including a travel history
guide to Pennsylvania. In 1998, he began to concentrate
on nonprofit organizations, primarily as a writer for
several years of the United Nations’ State of the
World’s Children Report. Before joining the Endowments,
Doug did some government service, working as
communications director for former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom
Murphy.
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