Dean P. Baquet, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to a prominent Creole family—his father owned the family's Creole restaurant Li'l Dizzy's—began his journalism career at the Chicago Tribune in 1976. He contributed to Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations into police torture under Commander Jon Burge (1986) and public school mismanagement (1988). Baquet joined the Los Angeles Times in 1988 as a metro reporter, later becoming investigations editor and leading coverage of the Rampart scandal, which earned the paper a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. He moved to The New York Times in 1990, holding roles such as national editor and Washington bureau chief. After briefly serving as managing editor at the Los Angeles Times, he returned to The New York Times as managing editor from 2011 to 2014 under Jill Abramson. In 2014, Baquet was appointed executive editor, becoming the first Black person to hold that position in the paper's history. He led the newsroom through significant events including the 2016 election and major social justice movements, and wrote a notable tribute upon the death of journalist David Carr. Baquet served as executive editor until 2022, when he became dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.