A graduate of Portsmouth Abbey School in Rhode Island, Eugene Joseph "E.J." Dionne went on to receive his B.A. from Harvard University and his Dphil from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

A well known American journalist and political commentator, E.J. has been a long-time op-ed columnist for The Washington Post.  He is also a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown Public Policy Institute, a Senior Research Fellow at Saint Anselm College, and a Commentator for National Public Radio. 

Additionally, Dionne writes for Commonweal magazine. Before becoming a columnist for the Post in 1993, E.J. worked as a reporter for that paper as well as The New York Times, where he served as a correspondent to the Vatican.