02 Dec Indy, 46201
Meet Tim Swarens! Tim will be giving us the “inside scoop” of some events and happenings here at Shepherd. If you want to better understand Shepherd and our neighborhood, you won’t want to miss Tim’s articles.
Tim Swarens is a former opinion editor and columnist with The Indianapolis Star. He previously was an editor with the Miami Herald.
Swarens is a graduate of Indiana University and Vincennes University with degrees in journalism. He and his wife live in Indianapolis. They have four adult children. He enjoys reading, cooking, and long-distance walking. He and his wife worship at Eagle Church in Whitestown, Indiana, where he served as an elder for 12 years.
Swarens was the editor or writer on projects that in recent years have won awards from Sigma Delta Chi, National Headliners, Scripps Howard, American Society of Newspaper Editors, and Robert F. Kennedy Excellence in Journalism. He also is the 2016 recipient of the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing.
In 2018, Swarens was the author of the EXPLOITED project, a 10-part series that investigated child sex trafficking in the United States and internationally. Swarens spent more than a year reporting on the series in eight countries on five continents. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, described the series as “remarkable and important” journalism.
Swarens’ work as editor of The Manual Project, a yearlong examination of conditions at an urban Indianapolis high school, led to creation of the Our City, Our Children initiative, which has raised millions of dollars to aid youth in Central Indiana and inspired thousands of people to serve as mentors and tutors for at-risk children.
His commentary has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Arizona Republic, Detroit Free-Press, Seattle Times and USA Today. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the BBC. He has been a regular panelist on IN Focus, an Emmy Award winning political talk show broadcast on CBS 4 and Fox 59 in Central Indiana.