Drew Gowing

Reared in socially progressive Los Angeles, Drew Gowing rebelled, as was the form, by dropping out of the prestigious University of Southern California to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) on a full-time, two-year missionary assignment in Canada. After returning to the U.S., he transferred to Brigham Young University to read philosophy and earn the distinction Bachelor of Arts.

He began his career as an intern on the Senate Labor and Human Resource Committee in Washington, D.C., and ultimately cut his teeth in the press rooms on Capitol Hill. In the nation's capital, communications and political science combined into the incontrovertible truth that publishing ensures, supports, and shapes the world of politics.

In the United States Congress, Gowing went on to serve a Congressional Press Secretary beginning in the Senate and subsequently the House. Commissioned to align policy initiatives with public perception, Gowing began each day by curating local, national, and foreign headlines. Prior to the Internet Revolution, news distribution on Capitol Hill required sourcing headlines from the Associated Press; cross-checking their articles with major news outlets; cross-referencing their theses with Congressional Research Service Reports; and fact-checking their sources and claims. Spiral bound briefing booklets were delivered to the desks of congressional staffers prior to their arrival in the office, and a handwritten synopsis of the daily news summery began: “Dear Citizens of the World.”

A candidate for the JD/MPP in Law and Public Policy, Gowing went on to Boston University and Global Management Consulting whereto advise the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, until, during the 2008 election year, three contingents to his past coincided when the LDS Church collected over $20+ million to promulgate the State of California’s Proposition 8. Herewith, church, state and law collided in what is described as the only instance in U.S. history where civil and pre-existing rights were taken away from a specific and targeted minority.

At the dawn of the Digital Revolution, Gowing was tapped in 2008 to edit a nonprofit political exposé thereafter. Whereupon he returned to public life to devote what he calls his "second act" to its service. Mr. Gowing is the inaugural editor of Charlatan Magazine: The Exposé of Politics & Style.