Sebastian Smith

• Lead team of 14 editors and assisting in leadership of wider newsroom.
• Bring passion for agile, dynamic coverage of the Americas.
• Emphasize teamwork between my desk, the other languages, visual departments and reporters.
• Combine proven drive for quality and hard work with compassion and always seeking to empower colleagues.

Fulltime breaking news coverage and analysis of Trump, Biden presidencies.

Worked closely with my other AFP reporter and photo colleagues in the White House, as well as in tight coordination with the desk and Americas editors.

Worked with the WHCA as travel pool coordinator, gaining valuable insight into White House travel arrangements.

As the sole English-language reporter in Brazil, I was responsible for maintaining a constant file on breaking news, analysis and features.

Highlights included coverage of social, environmental and political issues around the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Sought to deliver sharply angled, original stories including during a rare trip to an Indigenous tribe in the Amazon and during the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff.

Delivered original reporting on breaking news, including the 2008 financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street movement.

Sought out myriad of angles covering trends, fashion, politics and social issues across the city, always working closely with photo and the then-nascent video service.

Highlights included reports on the fallout from the 2008 crisis and deploying to the eye of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and to Iceland for the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Led team of English language reporters as part of large bureau covering the Putin presidency and last stage of the war in Chechnya.

Traveled frequently throughout the former Soviet Union.

Based in Tbilisi, Georgia, I provided freelance coverage of the Rose Revolution, the war in South Ossetia, and the (then) frozen conflicts in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Working with IWPR, I trained young journalists from conflict zones across the region.

Wrote two books under contract for Penguin about sea voyages.

Taught myself to sail and traveled in small boats from the UK on voyages around the Mediterranean totalling 10,000 miles.

Helped AFP's bureau cover the tumult of the Yeltsin presidency and war in Chechnya.

This was my entry to AFP and in addition to working on the desk I learned Russian, with hopes of securing work in Moscow.

My first stint in daily journalism, covering crime and education for a lively local outlet in a working class town in California's Central Valley.

Highlights included attaching myself to a convoy of local firefighters sent to the LA riots.

My first paid job in journalism, following apprenticeships at other local Virginia outlets.

Covering local politics and competing with another weekly paper taught me many of the basic skills I still rely on.