February 16, 2026

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Steve Coll Biography, Journalism, Net Worth, Books and Updates

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Steve Coll

Steve Coll, Biography

Steve Coll, born October 8, 1958, is an American journalist, historian, academic, and executive. He served as dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was the Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism until 2022.

Coll was a staff writer for The New Yorker and led the New America think tank as president and CEO from 2007 to 2012. He has received two Pulitzer Prizes, two Overseas Press Club Awards, the PEN American Center John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and the Arthur Ross Book Award.

Additional honors include the Livingston Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and the Lionel Gelber Prize. From 2012 to 2013, he served as a voting member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, continuing ex officio as dean of Columbia Journalism School. READ ALSO: David Goggins Net Worth, Age, Author, Family, Books, Wife, Parents

Steve Coll Birthplace and Age

Steve Coll (67-year-old) was born on October 8, 1958, in Washington, D.C.
He attended Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland, graduating in 1976.

After high school, he enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles, graduating cum laude in 1980 with majors in English and history. During his studies, he also attended the University of Sussex and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Steve Coll Wife

Coll is married to journalist and poet Eliza Griswold.

Journalism Career

After college, Steve Coll wrote for the Pasadena Weekly and contributed general-interest articles to California magazine. In 1985, he joined The Washington Post as a general assignment feature writer for the Style section.

Two years later, he became the newspaper’s financial correspondent in New York City. Collaborating with David A. Vise, he co-authored reports scrutinizing the Securities and Exchange Commission. He won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting and the Gerald Loeb Award.

In 1989, Coll moved to New Delhi as The Post’s South Asia bureau chief, serving as a foreign correspondent until 1995. He joined the newspaper’s Sunday magazine in 1995. He became its publisher from 1996 to 1998.

Promoted to managing editor in 1998, he served in that role through 2004 and later as associate editor until August 2005. From September 2005 to December 2023, Coll wrote for The New Yorker, reporting on foreign intelligence and national security from Washington, D.C.

Since early 2024, he has been a visiting senior editor at The Economist.

Steve Coll New America Foundation Director

On July 23, 2007, Steve Coll was named director of the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. He contributed to the New York Review of Books. He often wrote on the war in Afghanistan.

On June 25, 2012, Coll resigned as president of New America to write a follow-up to Ghost Wars. On October 23, 2012, he was elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board, administered by Columbia University.

Dean Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

On March 18, 2013, Steve Coll was announced as the next dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, taking office on July 1.

In 2024, he published The Achilles Trap. He received praise for offering an intimate view of Saddam Hussein’s thoughts on power and U.S. relations. The Washington Post noted the book’s holistic perspective but critiqued its portrayal of the CIA’s motivations.

In a March 2024 PBS interview, Coll emphasized that Hussein’s own contributions were largely missing from the American understanding of the war.

Steve Coll Net Worth

Steve Carell has a reported net worth of around $100 million.

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