Roland De Wolk is an author and an U.C. Berkeley educated historian who left academia for a career in journalism, then returned to teach at a San Francisco Bay Area university as an adjunct while retaining his full-time, prize-winning investigative reporting work.
He is the author of American Disruptor: The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford (UC Press, Autumn 2019), now also in paperback as well as being translated in Beijing into Chinese. It has been praised by a renowned academic historian and a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist for a being “deeply researched,” and a “rollicking biography.”
Part of a new breed of historians, Roland De Wolk alloys the disciplines of serious, documented history with vivid, relevant storytelling for unusually strong, enduring and arresting sagas.
During his almost four decades in journalism De Wolk specialized in investigative projects as well as news features, earning him most professional citations in his field, including being honored by the Society of Professional Journalists with its coveted Career Achievement Award. After leaving daily journalism, in 2014 he completed a commission by the California state Senate to investigate the huge delays and cost overruns of the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, resulting in a series of Senate hearings, legislation, and national news coverage. De Wolk continues his reporting on occasion through News To The Next Power and California News, Int., independent providers of high quality journalism based on verification – not assertion.
Roland spent the first half of his professional career as a print journalist, both for daily newspapers and magazines across the United States and Europe. He spent the second half greatly expanding to broadcast and online journalism. His original work has been published, posted, and broadcast to news outlets such as the New York Times, the (UK) Guardian, and CNN. He has created, produced and written nationally recognized and internationally covered news specials, as well as special broadcasts for sports, wildlife and live news events. He is co-founder of one of the first original online journalism sites in the world and authored the first university textbook for online journalism. Roland has also authored two outdoors books, published by Chronicle Books of San Francisco. De Wolk was a Senior Lecturer (aka Adjunct Professor) at San Francisco State University’s Journalism Department, where he taught with distinction for 25 years.
He has been a member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, the Committee for Concerned Journalists, the New Media Executive Roundtable, and was an Inaugural Fellow for the Freedom Forum’s New Media Technologies program. He was also a reporter and the managing editor for broadcast for the noted Chauncey Bailey Project, while the partnership was active.
In addition to being a history graduate of U.C. Berkeley, the California State University system has awarded Roland a master’s degree in recognition of his professional experience. He has held a fellowship at Stanford University, and has lectured at many institutions and forums coast-to-coast.
The third son of Belgian immigrants, Roland is a first-generation American who grew up in the Bay Area, where he and his family still live. He has also resided overseas and has traveled extensively throughout Africa, India, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America as well as Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.
He had been — until the owners betrayed the East Bay twice — an unabashed Oakland Raiders fan since childhood, and didn’t care who knew it. He still loves his San Francisco Giants.
Roland De Wolk is happily married to fellow journalist Carla Marinucci. They have two young adult sons. They are all smarter than he is.
Btw, as with most of the other people with 1.3 billion active Web sites, Roland is also a public speaker. He’s pretty good, though.
You can reach Roland De Wolk through RolandDeWolk@gmail.com or Rolando@Berkeley.edu
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