Matthew T. Hall is the editorial and opinion director at The San Diego Union-Tribune, where he's worked since 2001. He manages the Ideas and Opinion section, writing and editing editorials, and overseeing op-ed commentary, letters to the editor and a broader exchange of ideas around San Diego. He previously managed the newsroom's social media, compiled its "Essential California" daily newsletter and edited a daily blog called "The Conversation" that curated the best of social media and the Internet with help from readers. Previously, he was a metro columnist who reported and wrote four columns a week, and he had a series of reporting beats at the Union-Tribune. He has been named blogger, feature writer and critic of the year by the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and blogger and columnist of the year by the San Diego Press Club. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire and has worked at other newspapers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and California. He is past president of the San Diego chapter of SPJ, a proud winner of its Herbert Lockwood "Woody" Award for humor writing and western region director for the national board of SPJ.