James Risser received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Nebraska, and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.

A practicing attorney before he turned to journalism, Risser has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, in 1976 and 1979. He was Washington Bureau Chief of the Des Moines Register for nine years before joining the Stanford faculty in 1985. He won the Raymond Clapper Memorial Award for Washington reporting in 1976 and 1978 as well as the Thomas L. Stokes Award for environmental reporting in 1971 and 1978.

He is a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Gridiron Club of Washington, and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Reuter Foundation of London.

Risser has served as visiting professor at the Stanford in Washington Program. He has also been a visiting lecturer in government at Wells College, a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow at Mills College, Drew University and Bowdoin College, and editor-in-residence at the University of Nebraska’s School of Journalism.