The Emerald Welcomes Florangela Davila as Its New Executive Director

By the South Seattle Emerald Board of Directors

After nearly three years of dedicated leadership of the South Seattle Emerald, Michael McPhearson has stepped down from his position as our Executive Director. Michael has been instrumental to the many great strides our organization has made over his tenure including the creation of our new web platform, bringing in our full-time Managing Editor, and developing a strategic framework that leaves the Emerald in a great position to continue to provide invaluable content and resources to the South Seattle community.

The Board is very excited to announce that we have filled the Executive Director position with one of our own esteemed members, Florangela Davila. Florangela takes the reins of the Emerald with the full support of the Board and core team, and we cannot wait to work with her to strategize, direct, and embolden the organization into our next chapter.

Michael will remain in Seattle and work for Veterans For Peace to utilize his "military veteran identity to engage in the struggle for democracy and efforts to build a just nation and world." The Emerald Board and our organization are sad to see Michael go, but we are grateful to know his talent and energy will be directed toward another critical effort.

Florangela is an accomplished newsroom and nonprofit leader with an exceptional track record of strengthening organizations and empowering our community. Born and raised in Los Angeles to a Colombian immigrant mother and a Peruvian immigrant father, she has lived in South Seattle for 25 years and has spent a majority of her professional career in Seattle journalism. She was the former race and immigration reporter at The Seattle Times, where she worked for 14 years in both news and features, earning national and regional awards for her writing. She was the former managing editor at Crosscut/Cascade PBS, where she grew the newsroom, and its diversity, upon its merger with the PBS affiliate, launched reporting initiatives on both equity and the arts, brought in new community contributors, secured new donors, and served as the first Crosscut Now TV anchor.

Most recently, Florangela transformed the KNKX public radio newsroom as news director for four years, deepening accountability as well as arts reporting. She was executive producer of the acclaimed The Walk Home podcast, which, in collaboration with The Seattle Times, examined the Tacoma police killing of Manny Ellis. Florangela led the newsroom to dozens of accolades, including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards (Overall Excellence and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion); a Sigma Delta Chi Award for Investigative Reporting; a National Association of Hispanic Journalists Ñ Award; eight first-place Public Media Journalism Association Awards; and 15 regional Murrow Awards. Under Florangela's leadership, KNKX also was a finalist for a Scripps Howard Journalism Award and a Livingston Award.

Florangela has also served on the faculty at the University of Washington, produced and published Ampersand LIVE for the environmental nonprofit Forterra, and has volunteered on local arts organization boards. She joined the Emerald's Board of Directors last June.

Leading our BIPOC-focused publication fits entirely with who she is, what she believes in, and where she wants to take her career, Florangela says. As a collaborative and visionary leader, she is well aware that to be successful she needs buy-in from our team, our content providers, our Board, and, most importantly, our community. As our community and organization face tremendous political, cultural, and financial headwinds, our Board and staff are thrilled to have Florangela chart our path forward.

Here we'd like to offer her an opportunity to address you all directly.

"Hello! My entire journalism career has focused on serving Seattle and raising the visibility of everyone who calls this place home. Local journalism is critical to a robust and equitable community and now, more than ever, the public deserves trusted information and storytelling that includes myriad voices and perspectives.

"This is a tumultuous time for the country and for media. But it also makes now an opportune time for the Emerald. The Emerald was launched with a bold vision to serve the South End, and I couldn't be more excited to take on the task of sustaining and growing this vital resource for my neighbors.

"One of my first responsibilities as the Executive Director will be to establish a budget for the year. Coming from larger media organizations, I'm impressed by the loyalty the Emerald has inspired — from both its readership and its dedicated team of reporters, editors, contributors, and photographers. I'm eager to raise the visibility of the Emerald, to strengthen its content, to bring in more financial support to better resource the newsroom, and to find ways to be more responsive to what the community wants and expects from the Emerald.

"The Emerald's origin was to fill a void. Its character has always been to push back against the traditional. That innovation and fearlessness can be found in the team and the Board and it reflects the strength and the dynamic of the South End. But there is also a lot of heart coursing through the organization, the storytelling, and the community. All of this makes for enormous opportunities, and I couldn't be prouder to lean into the work ahead. I look forward to building community with and learning from each one of you.

"Please join me as we re-energize and grow the South Seattle Emerald into this next critical chapter of our shared history."

South Seattle Emerald founder and Board cochair Marcus Harrison Green also has a message to readers about Florangela:

"We are living in a time of profound institutional cowardice, where many organizations — especially in the media — have abandoned their once-bold commitments to equity, inclusion, and audacious truth-telling in favor of appeasing power. When so many have retreated from the core responsibilities of journalism — calling out injustice without hesitation, holding the powerful accountable, and standing as a shield for our most vulnerable communities — we need courageous leaders to rise.

"At this pivotal moment, there is no one I trust more to lead the Emerald as Executive Director than Florangela. She embodies the values that have been the foundation of the Emerald since my family founded it in 2014: community, empathy, courage, perseverance, dedication, and humility.

"As we step into our second decade, the Emerald's future has never been brighter. With Florangela at the helm, our readers, our community, and our city are incredibly fortunate to have a leader who will carry this mission forward with unwavering integrity and vision."

Florangela Davila's first day will be Feb. 10.