Voiceoforangecountyorg

MANAGEMENT

CEO/Executive Director

Norberto Santana, Jr.

CEO/Executive Director Experience

Norberto Santana, Jr. is an award-winning investigative reporter with nearly two decades of reporting experience, most recently engaging Orange County government institutions and decision makers as the founding publisher of the nonprofit digital newsroom, Voice of OC. As publisher and editor in chief, Santana oversees all newsroom, engagement and fundraising operations and also writes a weekly Opinion column about Orange County government. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the Orange County Press Club recognized Santana as Orange County’s best columnist. In 2018, the Los Angeles Press Club named Santana as Online Journalist of the Year. In 2018, the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists recognized Santana as a “Distinguished Journalist.” And in 2013, the California Chicano News Media Association honored Santana with a lifetime achievement award. Santana also serves on the board of directors for the national trade group for nonprofit newsrooms, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), the national nonprofit advocating investigative journalism, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the California First Amendment advocacy group, CalAware. In addition to journalism, Santana also teaches public affairs and investigative journalism as an adjunct faculty professor at Chapman University. Before founding Voice of OC in 2009, Santana was a lead investigative reporter for the Orange County Register from 2004-2009, focusing on county government. He’s spent nearly two decades just focusing on local governments across Southern California, previously as a staff writer with outlets such as the San Diego Union Tribune and the San Bernardino County Sun. Santana began his journalistic career in the early 1990s as an apprentice reporter with Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. covering daily floor action in the U.S. Congress and followed that up with a stint covering the territorial Senate for the U.S. Virgin Islands Daily News. In addition to his experience as a journalist, the Southern California native has a master’s in Latin American Studies, has worked as an elections analyst on National Endowment for Democracy programs across Latin America and was one of the founders of CubaNet.org, a website featuring the work of dissident journalists inside Cuba that has operated since 1995. Languages spoken: English and Spanish Areas of expertise: Orange County, southern California, investigations, politics, elections, government transparency, Congress, Cuba, Caribbean, Latin America, local government, civic education and reporting education.

Staff Information

Staff Demographics

Ethnicity

Gender