Debra Adams Simmons Named Editor in Akron
Debra Adams Simmons, managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal since February, was promoted Friday to editor and vice president, with a mission to increase the Ohio paper’s coverage of local news, the Beacon Journal announces.
The promotion at the Knight Ridder paper means it will have African Americans as both editor and publisher.
“Deb impressed me very early on that she could lead our newsroom,” Publisher Jim Crutchfield said in the paper’s story. “She’s a quick study, extremely analytical and level-headed. She also sees the big picture very well.”
Adams Simmons, 38, succeeds Jan Leach, who resigned in March for personal reasons after nearly five years as editor.
Maynard Institute board member John L. Dotson Jr. is publisher emeritus of the Beacon Journal and Al Fitzpatrick, a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, spent 29 years at the paper, ending as executive editor.
Adams Simmons appears on the Maynard Institute page on the Maynard Management Program at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Evanston, Ill.
“I can truly say that the Maynard experience helped lay the foundation for the next phase of my career. The session enhanced my appreciation for the business issues challenging the industry and gave me the confidence not only to dream bigger dreams but to reach for them. I left the Maynard Program more committed to the newspaper industry and to my own career than when I arrived,” she says.
