Alana Semuels

Semuels, born in Belmont, Massachusetts, attended Harvard University, where she earned Bachelor of Arts in American history and literature.[2] She also received a Rotary Scholarship to study at the London School of Economics, where she received a master's degree.[3] While in London, Semuels was a correspondent for The Boston Globe newspaper.[4]

She formerly worked as a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times[5] in New York, and covered the economy for that newspaper out of Los Angeles.[6] She also previously covered Great Britain for The Boston Globe as well as health and technology topics for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.[7] She was a staff writer for The Atlantic[5] in San Francisco, California.[1] As of 2021, she is senior economics Correspondent at Time.[8]

Semuels has a son (born October 23, 2020).[1]

Semuels was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist in 2014 for her series about the diminishing power of employees at the workplace.[6] She was named "Journalist of the Year" at the 2009 Los Angeles Press Club Awards.[9] She also won a feature writing award from the Society of Business Editors and Writers in 2011.[10] She also received an award from the Society of Business Editors and Writers in 2017 for a story, "The Problem With Rolling Back Regulations."[11] Semuels traveled to Japan and Sweden in the summer of 2017 as an Abe Fellow for Journalists, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council.[12]

Semuels's article "Crossing the Mexican-American Border, Every Day" was cited in Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent for the case Hernandez v. Mesa.[13][14]

Travel stories by Semuels from Africa and South America have appeared in three anthologies by Lonely Planet: By the Seat of My Pants, Tales from Nowhere, and Best of Lonely Planet Travel Writing.[15]