Issac Bailey joins McClatchy Opinion team in the Carolinas

To our readers: Issac Bailey is joining the McClatchy opinion team full-time as a columnist and editor in the Carolinas.

Bailey, a former member of the Charlotte Observer editorial board, has been writing a weekly column for North and South Carolina markets. He brings a unique perch to the role — he lives in Myrtle Beach and teaches at Davidson College and writes powerfully about issues and people in both North and South Carolina.

Bailey also will be serving as opinion editor in South Carolina, editing op-eds and other opinion content.

Bailey is a veteran journalist who has won numerous national and regional writing reporting awards and has conducted investigations that led to changes in the way the S.C. Department of Social Services handles child protection cases. His criminal justice reporting spurred the Myrtle Beach Police Department in South Carolina to rethink how it dealt with young men in the Booker T. Washington neighborhood.

Bailey was the Laventhol Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University during the spring of 2023. He’s a Professor of Practice at Davidson College and taught journalism and applied ethics at Coastal Carolina University for several years.

He’s been married for 25 years to Dr. Tracy Bailey, founder and executive director of non-profit literacy organization, Freedom Readers, and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of the Grand Strand. They have two children.

This story was originally published August 14, 2023 at 7:33 AM.