NBC News Digital announced today that Michelle Garcia is joining NBC News as the new editorial director for NBCBLK—NBC News’ African-American news vertical on NBCNews.com.
Garcia joins from Vice.com where she was a deputy editor managing the issues desk. NBC News global head of digital news Catherine Kim and NBC News Digital managing editor David Firestone announced the news in a memo to staff this afternoon, which TVNewser obtained not long ago:
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AdvertisementWe’re delighted to announce that Michelle Garcia is joining NBC News Digital as editorial director of NBCBLK.
Michelle was most recently a deputy editor at Vice.com, where she managed the issues desk and its team of 12 covering health policy, the environment, the economy, and identities, including a lengthy investigation into the Flint water crisis. She has also been managing editor of Out magazine, senior editor for race and identities at Vox.com, identities editor at Mic.com, and managing editor of Advocate.com. (In between, she’s also managed to write some terrific cover stories.) Over the last decade she has covered many of the major social movements across the U.S., including the fight for marriage equality, #MeToo, and the Movement for Black Lives. She was named to Folio’s list of 20 in their 20s, won a GLAAD Media Award with her staff at The Advocate about the advancement of the HIV treatment drug Truvada, and taught at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Earlier this year, she was admitted into the Poynter Institute’s prestigious Women’s Leadership Academy, an incubator for women leaders in media.
We’re looking forward to the rich experience and expertise Michelle will bring to the newsroom and to our core journalism. She will be working closely with Janell, Sandra, Jessi, Brooke, Joy and all of you—in addition to tapping into the vast resources of NBC News. Michael Cottman will continue with us until July 30, spending the next few weeks wrapping up a few projects, and we thank him for the hard work and insight that he has brought to the section during his time here.
Michelle is a graduate of SUNY Oswego’s journalism program, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, toddler, and what she describes as the best dog on the planet. She joins us the week of July 6, and even though we won’t be together in a newsroom for a while, we hope you’ll make her feel very welcome.
– Catherine and David