Nina Jane Easton (born October 27, 1958)[1] is an American author, journalist, TV commentator, entrepreneur, and film producer. In 2016, she co-founded SellersEaston Media, a private-client storytelling service that chronicles the legacies and impact of leaders in business, public service, and philanthropy.[2][3] A former senior editor and award-winning columnist for Fortune Magazine, she chaired Fortune Most Powerful Women International, with live events in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the U.S.,[4] and she co-chaired the Fortune Global Forum, bringing together top business and government leaders from around the world.[5] At the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), she founded and hosts a live event series on global affairs called "Smart Women Smart Power."[6] She is a frequent political analyst on television and was a 2012 fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Her journalism career began at Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she worked as a copy editor and reporter on the college newspaper and authored a front-page feature story for The Denver Post at age 19. After transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, she joined the staff of The Daily Californian, rising from reporter to international page editor and finally to managing editor. In a 2000 C-SPAN interview, Easton said, "I just started writing for the school paper and it never left my blood."[7]
Career
Journalism
Easton started her career in journalism in 1981 as a writer for Ralph Nader, for whom she co-authored a book on the Reagan administration.[8][9] In 1984 she became a staff reporter for the Washington D.C.-based Legal Times.[10] She then wrote for The American Banker and Businessweek before joining the Los Angeles Times as a staff writer, a position she held from 1988 to 1998. Easton's writing for the Los Angeles Times earned her a National Headliner Award in 1994 for best magazine writing and a Sunday Magazine Editors Award for investigative reporting.[11][12]
In 2003, Easton joined The Boston Globe as the deputy bureau chief at the paper's Washington bureau. From 2006 until 2016, she was a senior editor covering politics and economics for Fortune Magazine.[11][13][14] In 2014, her Fortune column was honored with a National Headliner Award for magazine commentary.[15] Easton also serves as chair of Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women International, which hosts events in the United States as well as internationally.[16][17] She is co-chair of the Fortune Global Forum, which in 2016 brought CEOs to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and discuss a private-sector compact on creating a more inclusive global economy.[18]
Easton's 2002 book, Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Ascendancy, which chronicles the rise of post-Reagan conservatism, now ranks on the Vox list of "books to read to understand the world."[19]
Easton is the author of several books. In 1982, Easton co-authored Reagan's Ruling Class: Portraits of the President's Top 100 Officials with Ronald Brownstein.[10] The book, whose preface was written by Ralph Nader, profiled individuals involved in Ronald Reagan's presidency and included interviews with most of the administration's top officials.[8][9]
While working for The Boston Globe, Easton co-authored John F. Kerry: A Complete Biography by The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best, with fellow Globe reporters Michael Kranish and Brian Mooney. The book was published in 2004, during Massachusetts Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign.[16][24]
Reagan's Ruling Class: Portraits of the President's Top 100 Officials, Pantheon, 1982, co-authored with Ronald Brownstein
Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Ascendancy, Simon & Schuster, 2002
John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best, PublicAffairs, 2004, co-authored with Michael Kranish and Brian Mooney
^ abc"Past Fellows and Visiting Faculty". Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved 9 July 2012.