Dow Jones News Fund names Carswell its executive director

The Dow Jones News Fund announced the appointment of Shirley Carswell, a distinguished journalist and educator, as executive director of the Fund, effective Jan. 4.

Carswell had a 25-year career at the Washington Post, where she rose to deputy managing editor. For the past seven years, she has taught at Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications, where she has helped prepare hundreds of young people for successful careers in the news media.

In the summer of 1982, Carswell was an intern at the Hartford Courant in the Fund’s editing internship program. She will be the first alumnus to lead DJNF, a private foundation.

“This position brings me full circle in my career,” Carswell said. “As a young journalism student at Howard University, the Dow Jones News Fund editing internship changed my life and put me on an accelerated path to newsroom management. It is a privilege to lead an organization that has had such an impact on my life and the lives of so many others.”

Richard J. Levine, president of the Fund, said, “Carswell brings to the Dow Jones News Fund a superb background and experience in daily journalism and education that will help us meet the immense challenges facing the Fund and the news industry. We welcome her leadership.”

The search for the executive director was conducted by DJNF board directors: Kamilah Mitchell-Thomas, chief people officer of Dow Jones; Karen Miller Pensiero, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and Garry D. Howard, director of corporate initiatives for American City Business Journals.

During most of her time at the Washington Post, Carswell served as a senior newsroom manager. She was the youngest person to be named an assistant managing editor when she was appointed and later became the first African-American woman to be elevated to a masthead position as deputy managing editor.