With more than 40 years of journalism and media relations experience, Ralph Frammolino has enjoyed a productive and wide-ranging career on both sides of the press aisle.

 

During his 25 years at the Los Angeles Times, he covered a variety of beats, from San Diego City Hall to the California Legislature, from statewide higher education to major breaking stories such as the Northridge Earthquake, the London Subway bombing and 9/11.

 

His expertise, however, was investigative reporting and he uncovered some of the Los Angeles area’s biggest stories. They included how the county coroner’s office was running a cornea mill for profit; how presidential candidate Bill Clinton lied about receiving a draft notice; how the UC Regents and UCLA Administration were admitting lesser qualified applicants as favors and fundraising incentives  – and how the J. Paul Getty Museum had purchased tens of millions of dollars of looting antiquities from the black market.

 

He took a buyout from the Times in 2006 to co-author “Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Art at the World’s Richest Museum,” a book about the Getty scandal. He also took his passion for reporting and story-telling overseas.

 

He taught at the India Institute of Journalism & New Media, located outside of Bangalore, India, and worked as a media development consultant for USAID, the World Bank Institute and Transparency International. His work took him to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. He returned to the United States in 2012 and switched to practicing crisis communications and media relations.