Robert K. Elder is the President and CEO of Outrider Foundation, and the author or editor of 30+ books.

Outrider is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) that supports journalism and multimedia storytelling about climate change and nuclear threats.

Outrider supports fellowships at The New York Times, TIME magazine, The Guardian US, USA Today,  Inside Climate News, Vox, Science Friday, and Hank Green’s Complexly.

Outrider also supports The New York Times’ Opinion series “At the Brink: Confronting the Risk of Nuclear War,” which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

In 2024, the foundation launched its annual Outrider Nuclear Reporting Summit, which brings together journalists at the nexus of health, climate, technology, and national security to deepen their understanding of how these issues are interconnected in the new nuclear landscape. Outrider’s 2025 conference was held in a former nuclear silo in Arkansas.

Elder spent a decade as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, later becoming the editor-in-chief of the Chicago Sun-Times’ 32 suburban newspapers and founder of its podcast network.

He has served on the boards of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Headline Club, becoming its president in 2019-2020. Elder has taught journalism at Columbia College Chicago and at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

Fun facts: In college, Elder was a student archivist of Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Early in his career, Elder was also a prolific concert photographer and film critic. 

A Montana native and graduate of the University of Oregon, Elder lives and writes in Chicagoland.