2021 Hall of Achievement Inductee

Michele Matassa Flores, a 1985 alum of the UO journalism program, is executive editor at the Seattle Times, where she oversees 160 journalists and guides the newsroom’s journalistic vision and strategic planning. She has helped lead the newspaper’s transformation to a digital media company and its industry-leading formation of community-funded journalism initiatives.

Matassa Flores joined the Times as a suburban reporter in 1988 and has held many positions there, including business reporter and editor, co-metro editor, deputy investigations editor, and managing editor.

She grew up in Roseburg, Oregon, and came to Eugene determined to make journalism her career. While attending the UO School of Journalism and Communication, she worked at the Oregon Daily Emerald, serving as its editor her senior year.

After graduating, she worked for three years at the Salem Statesman-Journal before leaving Oregon for the Seattle Times. During a five-year break from the Times in 2008–2013, Matassa Flores served as co-editor of the news site Crosscut, then managing editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal. She returned to the Times after getting a call from the publisher—and because she knew in her heart it was her true professional home. She participates in several professional organizations and has served as a Pulitzer juror.