Ju-Don Marshall was named president and CEO of WFAE, the Charlotte-based public radio station.
The WFAE Board of Directors voted unanimously to promote Marshall “based on her performance to date at WFAE, her vision for its future and her national reputation,” WFAE Board Chair Chris Cicoletti said in a statement.
Marshall is the first person of color to lead the station and assumes her role following the resignation of Joe O’Connor last month.
Marshall said she was “excited” and “humbled” to learn of her promotion last week. She has spent the vast majority of her time at WFAE on the content team but looks forward to contributing to the operational side.
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“This opportunity to focus on the revenue side of what we are and our long-term sustainability is a privilege,” she told QCity Metro.
In the new position, she also plans to continue building relationships with local media partners and the community.
Marshall joined WFAE in 2017 as a chief content officer and was promoted to executive vice president in 2020. Her work has helped transform WFAE from a public radio station into a multimedia organization.
Some of the most notable contributions include spearheading efforts to expand coverage of communities of color through the station’s race-and-equity reporting initiative, as well as through the station’s ongoing conversations with local officials, community leaders and residents.
“I came into journalism because the stories of my community weren’t being told,” she said. “There are so many moments over the course of the six years that I’ve been at WFAE where we‘ve had the opportunity to tell those stories and make centering community a core part of who we are.”
Before WFAE, Marshall led or worked in news organizations including The Washington Post, News Corporation, Everyday Health and The Charlotte Observer.
Marshal, who is one of QCity Metro’s Great 28 honorees this year, has earned numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award. In 2022, Business North Carolina named her as one of North Carolina’s most influential leaders.
She is also developing a platform called Story Mosaic to help Charlotte-area residents share story ideas with reporters.
Marshall is a graduate of Howard University and studied at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow.