Sacramento
Sacramento State alumna Cheryl Dell (Communication Studies, ‘82) is the former publisher and president of The Sacramento Bee, the fifth largest newspaper in California.
Her career in the news industry spans nearly 33 years and includes positions in Texas and Washington. She returned to Sacramento to take over the flagship publication of The McClatchy Company after 11 years with the organization where she served as publisher of both The Tacoma News Tribune and the Tri City Herald in Eastern Washington. Her goal was to ensure that the 160-year-old Sacramento paper continued to play the essential role of keeping the region informed.
Throughout her career, Ms. Dell strongly believed in volunteering and to that end, served on the board of directors for various organizations in the Sacramento region, including the Sacramento Tree Foundation, Valley Vision, Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO), The Salvation Army Advisory Board and MLK 365. Additionally, she served on the executive committee and was chairman of the board for the Inland Press Foundation, one of the oldest and largest newspaper membership organizations, serving more than 1,000 member newspapers in the United States. The Bee has a 160-year legacy of public service journalism and has won virtually every major journalism award under Ms. Dell’s leadership, including the Pulitzer Prize.
In 2014, Ms. Dell was named to the Sacramento Business Journal’s list of “Women Who Mean Business.” She received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013 from California State University, Sacramento and Sacramento State Alumni Association. She has also been an invited speaker at campus events and gave a presentation on the state of the newspaper industry at the launch of the spring 2014 Sac State Magazine.
In recognition of her contributions and impact on California as a communication leader, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Sacramento are proud to confer on Cheryl Dell the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.