Joel Brinkley, American journalist and academic (b. 1952)
Joel Graham Brinkley (July 22, 1952 – March 11, 2014) was an American syndicated columnist. He taught in the journalism program at Stanford University from 2006 until 2013, after a 23-year career with The New York Times.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1980 and was twice a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.