James Fahn

Executive Director, Earth Journalism Network

James Fahn is the Global Director of Internews’ Environmental Programs and the Executive Director of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network, a global community of over 15,000 reporters who cover environment and climate topics. A journalist who has primarily focused on environmental, climate and science issues in developing countries, he is also a Lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches a graduate-level course on international environmental reporting. James has spent most of his professional career based in Asia, where he was a reporter and editor for The Nation, an English-language daily newspaper based in Bangkok, and hosted a Thai feature television show. His book, A Land on Fire, published in 2003, recounts the issues and scandals he uncovered while working on the environment beat in Southeast Asia.

James has also written for the New York Times, Scientific American, Newsweek, The Economist, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Global Investigative Journalists Network,  the Jakarta Post, SciDev.net, Nature.com, the Huffington Post and the Columbia Journalism Review. He previously served on the Engagement Committee for Future Earth, managed Internews’ Myanmar country program for several years, was the co-founder of the Thai Society of Environmental Journalists, and worked for the Ford Foundation as a program associate in the field of environment and development.

James has a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, and Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University. He received UNEP’s Global 500 Award for The Nation’s environment reporting, and was pinned by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn for his service to Thailand. James is fluent in Thai, and was once fluent in French. He enjoys playing sports in his spare time, and has served as the coach of his local public school’s soccer and ultimate teams.