Christi Parsons

Christi Parsons became director of Merrill College's Capital News Service D.C. bureau in January 2026. She had joined the college as a faculty member and director of the CNS Annapolis bureau in January 2024. She was previously an enterprise editor and assistant managing editor at CNN. 

Parsons leads Merrill College students’ coverage of Capitol Hill, especially when it comes to its impact on Maryland residents and its importance to a healthy democracy. In addition to leading D.C. coverage, Parsons works to expand collaboration between CNS and the college’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, with an emphasis on impactful enterprise stories, data journalism and artificial intelligence innovations.

Parsons has been a journalist for more than 30 years, reporting all over the U.S. and from 32 countries around the world. She previously was a senior editor at The Atlantic; a White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times; a national political writer, state and local reporter for The Chicago Tribune; and a local reporter for several newspapers around the South. She has covered presidential campaigns since the 1990s, and was one of the longest-serving chroniclers of the rise and presidency of Barack Obama, covering him from the beginning of his term in the Illinois Senate and throughout his time in the White House.  

In 2015, Parsons was president of the White House Correspondents' Association. She serves on the board of MASTHEAD, an alumni organization that supports student journalists of color at the University of Alabama. In 2024, she was inducted into the University of Alabama College of Communication & Information Sciences Hall of Fame.

She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama and a master's from Yale Law School. Parsons is known for helping fellow journalists develop strong source networks and dig deep in reporting, as well as for her attention to lovely writing.