Alicia Freese (L) and Natalie Williams (VTDigger staff photo)
VTDigger has promoted Alicia Freese and Natalie Williams to key newsroom leadership positions, editor-in-chief Paul Heintz announced Thursday.
Freese has been named deputy managing editor. In that role, she will work closely with managing editor Maggie Cassidy to run Vermont’s largest newsroom on a day-to-day basis. Williams will serve as a senior editor, overseeing VTDigger’s visual, multimedia, podcasting and public engagement operations. She joins a team of senior editors that also includes Jim Welch, Tom Kearney and Diane Derby.
Freese is no stranger to VTDigger. She joined the fledgling nonprofit in 2012 as one of its first employees, reporting on state government and politics. Freese spent the next five years covering Burlington and then state government for Seven Days, before taking a break from journalism to teach English in Mexico. She returned to VTDiggerin April 2022 and has spent most of the past year as interim senior editor, covering for Welch while he serves as interim executive director.
Williams joined VTDigger as news editor in March 2021 and became its digital editor a year later. The University of Vermont graduate previously served as digital editor and then visuals coordinator for the Bangor Daily News in Maine and held other reporting and editing positions in California.