Tony Fellow, Lifelong Democrat – Brand New Republican

A member of the California State Assembly once introduced Dr. Tony Fellow as the “pillar of the San Gabriel Valley.” His community and professional involvement have certainly touched upon the most important elements of a community—water, education and government.

Fellow was elected to the Upper San Gabriel Municipal Water District in 1990. He was instrumental in establishing the district’s first water recycling program which would save the greater San Gabriel Valley during the nine-year drought, conservation education programs, and a reforestation project in the Angeles National Forest. His 24-yearappointment as director and vice-chair of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California gave him a wider reach to inaugurate programs that would benefit Southern California. Today he is also Chair of all water agencies in Los Angeles and Ventura counties who are members of the Association of California Water Agencies.

In 1996 he was elected to the El Monte City Council where he served for 12 years. In 2007 Arcadia voters overwhelmingly elected Fellow to the Pasadena City College Board of Trustees.

Fellow was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and grew up in El Monte. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree and Lifetime Secondary Teaching Credential, he worked as a reporter at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. He was promoted to assistant city editor and columnist, and head of the political election team covering the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

He holds a doctorate from the Walter H. Annenberg College of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California where he was an Annenberg Scholar. He also holds three master degrees in Communications and just completed a three-year post-doctoral degree in Catholic Theology and Sacred Scriptures at St. Joseph’s College of Maine. At USC and Cal State Fullerton, he taught courses in media history, media law and First Amendment rights, international communications and media and politics. He is an international Fulbright Scholar having taught in Rome, Florence, Vercelli, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. At an international conference in Rome, he was named one of America’s Distinguished Professors.

He is author of American Media History, Tweeting to Freedom: An Encyclopedia of Citizen Protests and Uprisings Around the World, Copy Editor’s Handbook for Newspapers, and Writing in a Multimedia World. He is currently working on how today’s news media is destroying American democracy. He speaks frequently at the annual Broadcast Education Association conference in Las Vegas. Last year he spoke about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the First Amendment.