Julia Russell newspaper’s new board chair

At a recent meeting of the board of directors of The Charlotte News, Julia Russell was voted in as board chair. She has been a member of the board since April 2023 where she leads the work of our digital committee.

This includes developing performance metrics, identifying security vulnerabilities and best practices, and planning for upcoming workshops with the Google News Initiative and the Institute for Nonprofit News where the focus will be on boosting digital revenues and reader engagement.

Russell worked at the University of Vermont for 27 years before retiring recently from her position as the associate chief information officer, where her responsibilities included overseeing the university’s Enterprise Technology Services group of 80 full-time staff and 20 part-time student workers.

Her resume includes a wide range of skills and experience including strategic planning, management, business process design, software evaluation and qualitative research methods such as focus groups, hardware and software support.

She holds a doctorate in education from the University of Vermont, a masters of business administration from Boston University and a bachelors from Dartmouth. Over the years, she has volunteered with the Charlotte Library, the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, the Green Mountain Athletic Association, anti-poverty advocacy group Results and the Women in Science program at Dartmouth.

Julia moved to Charlotte in 1995 with her husband Charles and their three children, Amanda, Katharine and Michael. She enjoys running, gym, reading, cooking and knitting, and has recently added spinning and pickleball. She is also learning to weave on a floor loom and is optimistic about producing more from her garden. Whenever possible, the Russells travel to the New York City area and Syracuse to spend time with their kids and grandkids.

“As board chair, I’m looking forward to working with a strong and engaged board and, in conjunction with a talented and hardworking editor and staff, to building on recent accomplishments,” she writes. “I’m also looking forward to helping further strengthen the paper’s financial position and to diving into succession planning initiatives. Local news is vitally important to community health, and I feel fortunate to be involved.”

Following my resignation as publisher, we have not yet found someone to move into this role. Julia is working with board and staff to ensure that key responsibilities continue to be managed. If you’re reading this and are curious about what the publisher’s volunteer work involves, Julia would love to hear from you.

On behalf of everyone connected with the newspaper, I want to express my thanks to Julia for stepping into a leadership position as board chair.