The 2023 Daily Bruin Alumni Network Reunion is approaching! We can’t wait to welcome you back to Westwood on Saturday, Oct. 21, as we come together to celebrate our alumni and students.

We are excited to announce Matea Gold ’96, national editor and soon-to-be managing editor of the Washington Post, as the recipient of the Daily Bruin Alumni Network’s 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award. This award recognizes former Daily Bruin staffers who are difference makers in the world and their professions.

Start the day with newsroom tours that will bring back fond memories, join thought-provoking panel sessions in Kerckhoff Hall, then gather for an evening of food, drink and fun.

Registration is now open! Please RSVP early to reserve your spot at what is sure to be a great event. See you in Westwood!

Friday, Oct. 20
6:30 p.m. | UCLA Men’s Soccer vs. San Diego State
Wallis Annenberg Stadium

• Cheer on the Bruins to start the weekend! Alumni should visit the box office to collect up to four free tickets for this Alumni Association Appreciation event. (Available on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last on gameday.)

Saturday, Oct. 21
1 p.m. | Check-in Opens
118 Kerckhoff Hall

1 – 5 p.m. | Open Newsroom
118 Kerckhoff Hall

• Join us for tours of the newsroom, exploration through the archives and chats with current student staffers. Light refreshments provided.

2:30 – 3:30 p.m. | State of The Bruin
Bruin Viewpoint Room, Ackerman Union

• Hear about the latest campus happenings and find out what’s new at the Daily Bruin from the 2023-24 management team: Isabelle Friedman (editor in chief), Abigail Siatkowski (managing editor) and Emily Tang (digital managing editor).

4 – 5 p.m. | News Literacy Program

• Can media literacy build a new generation of critical thinkers? Join Washington Post Managing Editor Matea Gold ’96 in conversation with the News Literacy Project and veteran journalist Jim Newton, UCLA lecturer of Public Policy. Gold, a former UCLA Daily Bruin editor in chief, will discuss the importance of news literacy and its impact on democracy.

5:30 – 7 p.m. | Check-in and Happy Hour
James West Alumni Center Patio

7 – 9 p.m. | Program and Dinner
James West Alumni Center, Collins Room

• Close out the night with dinner, presentation of the DBAN Distinguished Alumni Award and a ceremony to honor the Daily Bruin Alumni Network student scholarship winners. Dress is business casual.

Parking
Parking is available for $15 per day in structures 4 and 8.

Cost
Full-day ticket: $65
Recent Graduate full-day ticket: $40
(Classes of 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
Breakout sessions/tours only: $20 (does not include dinner/reception)

You must purchase a full-day ticket to attend the reception and dinner program.

You must register and pay using the RSVP button below. On-site registration will not be available.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, Oct. 11.

For questions, contact: DailyBruinAlumni@alumni.ucla.edu.

DBAN 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient

Matea Gold ’96
National Editor, Washington Post

The Daily Bruin Alumni Network is thrilled to celebrate Matea Gold as this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award honoree. Gold currently leads a staff of more than 150 journalists as national editor of The Washington Post. Beginning in September, she will take on a new role as managing editor.

In her time as national editor, Gold launched a new democracy team and visual enterprise team, deepened on-the-ground coverage in California and Texas, and oversaw revelatory reporting on the fall of Roe v. Wade, U.S. support for Ukraine, the fallout of the pandemic, the 2022 midterm elections and the start of the 2024 White House race, among other consequential storylines.

Gold has spearheaded some of The Post’s most distinctive journalism, including an investigative series about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that won a George Polk Award and a Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting and was part of the package that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Under her leadership, the National department’s coverage won two Pulitzer Prizes in May of this year, one for national reporting and another for feature writing.

Previously, Gold ran The Post’s national political enterprise and investigations team and spent two decades as a reporter, including 17 years at the Los Angeles Times. Raised in Sacramento, she began as a news staffer at The Bruin before becoming a section editor. She served as editor in chief in 1994-95.