Brian Carovillano is the first U.S. regional editor for the Associated Press. He is leading the 13-state South region, stretching from Delaware to Florida and west to Louisiana, covering more than 20 bureaus, a staff of more than 150 and an all-formats regional desk in Atlanta. Carovillano has spearheaded an ongoing two-year reorganization of AP’s domestic news operation, launching the first of four regional desks and the template by which three more hubs were created.

In less than two years leading the region, Carovillano has overseen coverage of three ongoing efforts selected by AP leadership as Pulitzer Prize nominees. These include Hurricane Ike in 2008, the scandal involving South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and the AP Economic Stress Index, a multimedia project built by a team of journalists working on all platforms that aims to measure the relative impact of the recession on American communities.

During his tenure as news editor for Northern California, Carovillano’s team focused on diverse topics, from the death of ex-NFL star Pat Tillman, to food safety, airline ticket taxes and the credit crisis. This yielded more internal citations in 2007 than for any other AP bureau. He also served as a desk supervisor in the Boston bureau, first as night supervisor and then as day supervisor.

Carovillano started as an AP reporter in Providence, Rhode Island, serving as lead reporter for the federal corruption trial of Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, which culminated in the conviction of the city’s colorful longtime leader. Before that, he was regional editor for the MetroWest Daily News, a 60,000-circulation daily. He started his career at the Monadnock Ledger, an award-winning weekly paper in rural southwestern New Hampshire. He won awards from the New Hampshire Press Association for his weekly outdoor sports column.

Carovillano earned a B.A. degree in English in 1995 from Colby College and attended the Syracuse University program in Florence, Italy in spring 1994 and the Colby College program in Rome, Italy in January 1995.