Andres Martinez is now the director of the New America Foundation's Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program. The outfit's goal is to train and support a new generation of aspiring public intellectuals. Martinez attended boarding school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He subsequently earned an undergraduate degree in history at Yale University, a master's degree in Russian history at Stanford University, and a law degree at Columbia University, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review. While he was at law school, Martinez developed an interest in journalism. "I was a news junkie, liked to write, [and was] interested in different things," he recalls.

After a brief stint as a barrister, Martinez left his job at a law firm in Washington to earn $415 a week as a fall intern for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and subsequently landed a reporting gig. From Pittsburgh, Martinez moved to New York City, where he worked as a business reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Later, he served as an assistant editorial page editor and as a member of the editorial board at The New York Times. He was a 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series of editorials on the impact of U.S. farm subsidies on the developing world. Martinez also wrote 24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas.

Martinez, 41, most recently worked for the Los Angeles Times after Michael Kinsley recruited him as editorial page editor. Later, he also oversaw the newspaper's Sunday opinion section. . .

Click here to learn more about Martinez: http://www.newamerica.net/people/andres_martinez.

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