William Harless covered politics and city government at a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee for three years before joining the Peace Corps, where he served in Thailand from 2008 to 2010. At Berkeley, he plans to study television news production and investigative reporting. In Nashville, his investigative work led longtime U.S. Congressman Bob Clement to return more than $40,000 in mayoral-race contributions, citing his reporting on the Clement campaign's use of political action committees. After the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce forced Harless to leave a Chamber board meeting one afternoon, the city council passed legislation requiring more financial disclosure by nonprofit organizations accepting city funds. He also broke news of delays in the financing of a major downtown ballpark-residential-business development, planned by the city, Baltimore developer Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse, and the Nashville Sounds baseball team, which ultimately fell through. Harless helped cover the 2010 Nashville flood for The New York Times and has interned and written news for Nashville Public Radio and for 88.5 WFDD Public Radio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He studied English literature at Lipscomb University in Nashville and knows the best ramen dive in Bangkok.