Karl Grubaugh is an adjunct journalism professor at Sacramento State University, a role he took on in January 2023. In addition to teaching at Sac State, he serves as an adviser and writing coach with the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, a program that works with high school students in Sacramento County — he edits student-produced stories for publication on SacSchoolBeat.org, the initiative’s news website that covers schools and districts across the county. Grubaugh, who holds an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri, retired in 2020 after a nearly 40-year career teaching journalism and social studies in K-12 and college classrooms. He also has nearly four decades of  journalism experience, including almost 20 years as an on-call copy editor at the Sacramento Bee. He was named the National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2008 by the Dow Jones News Fund, and he holds a 2013 Gold Key Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association honoring his commitment to scholastic journalism. He and his wife, who have three adult children and three grandchildren (and a granddog!), live in Cameron Park.