John Schwartz is a Professor of Practice in Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and Media and serves as associate director of the university's Global Sustainability Leadership Institute. Before joining UT, Schwartz built a distinguished journalism career spanning more than three decades at Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. His reporting covered business, science, technology, space exploration, legal affairs, natural disasters, and climate change, including major events such as the Columbia shuttle disaster and Hurricane Katrina. He retired from The New York Times in 2021 after 21 years with the newspaper.
Schwartz began his journalism career at Newsweek Magazine in 1985, where he rose to senior editor in the business section before joining The Washington Post as a science reporter. In 2000, he moved to The New York Times, where his reporting expanded across nearly everysection of the newspaper while covering some of the nation's most significant scientific, technological, legal, and environmental stories. In addition to his reporting, Schwartz is the author of several books, including “Oddly Normal: One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality” and “This Is the Year I Put My Financial Life in Order.”
He was born in Galveston, Texas, the third son of A.R. "Babe" Schwartz and Marilyn Ruth Cohn Schwartz. His parents were civic leaders, and his father served in the Texas Senate from 1961 until 1980, where he was a champion of civil rights and of environmental protection. John attended Ball High School and the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated in 1979 with honors from the Plan II liberal arts program. He went on to UT Law School. While attending the law school, he got involved with campus journalism, and he became editor of the student magazine, UTmost, and then The Daily Texan. He did not practice law, though his parents thought it would have been a good idea.
Schwartz is married to his college sweetheart, Jeanne Mixon, whom he met shortly before beginning classes at UT Austin in 1975. The couple lives in Pflugerville, Texas, and has three children and two grandchildren.
