NY Times names Russell New England bureau chief

The following excerpt was sent out from The New York Times’ National editor Jia Lynn Yang, deputy National editor Monica Davey and assistant National editor Abby Goodnough:

We are thrilled to announce that Jenna Russell will be our next New England bureau chief.

Jenna comes to us from The Boston Globe, where she has worked for more than two decades as a projects reporter on the paper’s narrative team and its investigative Spotlight team; a beat reporter covering education; and a roving regional reporter filing stories from across New England — an experience that prepared her expertly for her new role. Most recently, she covered the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic in K–12 schools, with a focus on inequality.

As a member of the Spotlight investigative team, Jenna helped expose failures of the state’s mental health care system, work that was recognized as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2017.

She has co-authored two books with Globe colleagues: “Last Lion,” a biography of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; and “Long Mile Home,” about the Boston Marathon bombing.

A native of Marblehead, Mass., Jenna studied English, creative writing and studio art at Dartmouth. Before The Globe, she worked as an arts and culture reporter at the Bangor Daily News in Maine and as a health and education reporter at the Anderson Independent-Mail in South Carolina. She began her journalism career covering local schools for the weekly paper in Swampscott, Mass.

Jenna will start on Nov. 14. Please join us in welcoming her to National.