The Power of Technology

  We are in for a real treat on Friday when our speaker will be Christina Passariello from the Washington Post. Technology is totally interwoven into our lives now. In Silicon Valley, we often embrace it. But for many people, especially outside the Bay Area, tech is scary or confusing or inaccessible. Christina plans to discuss how we approach tech journalism, why it’s just as important as covering the government, how journalism has gotten a lot smarter about tech coverage in the last few years—and why the “techlash” shouldn’t be the only story.

  Christina oversees a critical and expanding area of coverage for The Washington Post, running a talented team of reporters in San Francisco, Washington and Seattle.  She guides coverage of the most powerful companies in the world, which play critical roles in shaping our world. Under her leadership, the Post has produced groundbreaking stories about privacy, freedom of speech, safety and the responsibility of tech giants. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal for nearly 14 years, most recently as deputy technology editor in its San Francisco bureau. Prior to San Francisco, Christina was the European fashion and luxury correspondent for the Journal, covering everything from catwalks to sweatshops. She was part of the team that won the 2013 Sigma Delta Chi award for reporting on Bangladesh’s garment industry. She previously worked for Business Week and Euromoney, and her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Time Magazine and Rolling Stone. She served as a foreign correspondent in Paris for 14 years and also lived in London.

  Christina received a BA in English from Cal, and was a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford from 2014 to 2015. She hails from southern California. Growing up, she began her journalism career writing features for her high school newspaper. But she was really sold on the profession after her first professional assignment, for Rolling Stone: to cover a party hosted by several former Beatles. She is fluent in French and Italian.