The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board offers opinions and analyses of the everyday challenges impacting Utahns.
The editorial board — which operates independently of the newsroom — includes six people, three members of the newspaper’s professional staff, two from The Tribune’s Board of Directors and one from the community. One board of directors member and the community member rotate annually.
The Tribune is a nonprofit, and as such the editorial board no longer makes candidate endorsements. Nonprofits cannot do so under federal law.
The current members of the editorial board include the following:
Tom Love
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tom Love, chair of The Salt Lake Tribune's board of directors, on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.
Tom Love is a Salt Lake City advertising executive and fundraiser with deep Utah roots. He became chair of The Tribune’s board of directors in February 2024.
Love joined the editorial board in 2023 and retired in January 2023 from Love Communications, the influential ad firm he co-founded 25 years ago after a 12-year stint as a sales executive for ABC4 Utah. Love has been an adjunct professor at the University of Utah and served on the nonprofit boards of United Way and Utah Symphony | Utah Opera for over a decade each, including in leadership roles.
“I’m absolutely in love with The Salt Lake Tribune,” Love says. “I’ve been a reader and a supporter and a subscriber my entire life. I feel an intense obligation to do whatever I can to help The Tribune thrive, keep The Tribune voice alive, and continue to grow, and be Utah’s watchdog.”
Lauren Gustus
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lauren Gustus, executive editor of The Salt Lake Tribune, on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.
Lauren Gustus returned to The Tribune as executive editor in the fall of 2020 and was named CEO in June 2024. She previously served as executive editor of The Sacramento Bee and West Region editor for McClatchy. She joined the editorial board in 2020.
George Pyle
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) George Pyle.
George has been an editorial writer, columnist and blogger for The Tribune’s opinion space since 2002 — with a four-year diversion to do the same things for The Buffalo News in Buffalo, N.Y. He joined the editorial board in October 2002.
Alisha Gorder
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Alisha Gorder at her home in Park City, on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024.
Alisha Gorder, a writer who has appeared in The New York Times, New York Post, The Patriot Ledger (Massachusetts), Easton (Connecticut) Courier and Hartford (Connecticut) Courant, joined The Tribune’s Editorial Board in May 2023.
She consulted for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential run and for external communications at the Clinton Foundation. She is also the author of the novel “Joy: A Modern Fable.”
Jay Shelledy
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jay Shelledy
James E. (Jay) Shelledy, a founding member of The Salt Lake Tribune Board of Directors, former university professor and, for 12 years, editor of The Tribune, joined the nonprofit publication’s editorial board in August 2023.
Now retired, Shelledy was most recently at Louisiana State University where, for a time, he directed student media, and directed LSU’s Cold Case Civil Rights-era Murders Project and Wrongful Conviction project.
Dave Patel
Dave Patel | Salt Lake Tribune Board of Directors
Dave Patel is a first-generation immigrant and long-time Utahn, who serves as the managing director for strategic economic partnerships at The University of Utah. Prior to joining the U. he was associate dean of the business school at Utah State University and spent 15 years in Washington, D.C., in both the public and private sectors. He joined the Editorial Board in January 2022.
Pat Bagley
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Pat Bagley.
Editorial cartoonist Pat Bagley has been taking the temperature of the state of Utah with his pen since 1979. He has won several prestigious cartooning awards, including the Herblock Prize in 2009, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. He joined the editorial board in 2024.
The editorial board welcomes community members and leaders to speak about local and timely issues, as well as potential solutions to shared community challenges. If you’re interested in speaking with the editorial board, please email Voices editor Sara Weber at sweber@sltrib.com.
Please understand that the editorial board might not always be able to accommodate a meeting request, and that Utahns are invited to submit an op-ed or a letter to the editor for consideration.
