Bill McCarren
Executive Director
Bill McCarren joined Voices Unbound as Executive Director in April 2026, bringing more than a decade of experience working on high-profile cases of journalists wrongly detained, attacked, or driven from their countries. He is based in the Washington, D.C. area.
McCarren has led some of the most high-profile campaigns for journalists in trouble, including Jason Rezaian, Emilio Gutierrez Soto, Austin Tice, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Dong Yuyu, among others. He continues to support journalists in the U.S. and abroad, including Jimmy Lai, Georgia Fort, Tice, and Dong, working closely with families to advocate for journalists wrongly detained or facing significant challenges.
A Chicago-area native, McCarren received a BA from Vanderbilt University and an MA from Brown University. He founded U.S. Newswire LLC in 1986 and led it until 2006, when he was in residence at Harvard as a Nieman Fellowship affiliate. From 2007 to 2023, he served as Executive Director of the National Press Club. In 2024, he founded the Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club.
In addition to his work for Voices Unbound, McCarren serves on the board of the Etilaatroz Foundation, which operates the third-largest news organization in Afghanistan.