Michael Anastasi

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF LOCAL NEWS, GANNETT
AND THE USA TODAY NETWORK
2001, B.A., PRINT JOURNALISM, CSULB
2020, M.A., LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC SERVICE, LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY

A first-generation college student who was born in Kitzbuhel, Austria, and raised in the small Northern California town of Knights Landing (pop. 987), Michael Anastasi came to CSULB as a journalism major — rising to editor-in-chief of the Daily 49er (now the Long Beach Current) during his senior year — and has been an enthusiastic champion of his alma mater ever since. Although his academic and professional pursuits eventually brought him to Tennessee, where he is currently the senior vice president of local news for Gannett and the USA TODAY Network, the nation’s largest news organization, Anastasi has remained an active part of Beach life over the years. In addition to serving as a member of CSULB’s Journalism Advisory Board since 2008, Anastasi assisted the Department of Journalism & Public Relations during its accreditation process; coached, hired and taught journalism students; and funded, with his wife, Julie, an endowed scholarship that will support returning journalism students at CSULB in perpetuity. A nationally recognized supporter of diversity who founded the APSE (Association of People Supporting Employment First) Diversity Fellowship Program, Anastasi says he is immensely proud of being a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, but prouder still to have been named in 2021 as co-laureate of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award, which annually recognizes the best human rights and social justice journalism in the world. Anastasi’s proudest personal accomplishment is raising, with Julie, two daughters who are university graduates. The couple looks forward to celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary later this year.

From 2025 Alumni Awards program