Clara Jeffery

Clara Jeffery (MSJ93), is a member of the Medill Hall of Achievement.

Jeffery is editor-in-chief of Mother Jones magazine. She has been editor-in-chief since 2015. Prior to that, she was co-editor with Monika Beuerlein since 2006. Mother Jones has flourished under her leadership. During her tenure, Mother Jones has added bureaus in Washington and New York, increased the staff, grown the print circulation to greater than 215,000, and built it into a 24-7 multimedia newsgathering organization, and earned a national reputation for investigative pieces.

In 2012, Mother Jones released the “47-percent” video, a secret recording in which presidential candidate Mitt Romney said 47 percent of voters are dependent upon government and would never vote for him. The video catapulted the magazine into the spotlight, arguably changing the course of an American presidential election. Since Jeffery became the editor, Mother Jones has won several National Magazine Awards including for Magazine of the Year in 2017.

Jeffery started her career as an intern for the Chicago Reporter, reported and edited for the Washington City Paper, and was a senior editor at Harper’s Magazine for six years.