Ju-Don Marshall, who became WFAE’s chief executive officer earlier this year, was named the 2023 Woman of the Year by The Mecklenburg Times and North Carolina Lawyers Weekly at a ceremony Thursday night.
Marshall was chosen from among 50 women earlier named as the most influential in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community. The selection panel said Marshall exemplifies what it means to have a significant, positive impact on the community.
“As a pillar of the community and a dedicated journalist, our selection panel felt that Ju-Don Marshall exemplifies what it means to be a force for change in North Carolina and is the definition of an influential woman. Congratulations again to her,” said Scott Baughman, editor of The Mecklenburg Times.
Marshall thanked her colleagues at WFAE for their work and their dedication to Charlotte.
“I am grateful for their dedication to the tenets of journalism and their tireless work. We truly do strive to make this community better one story and one conversation at a time,” she said.
Before being named CEO, Marshall was chief content officer and executive vice president of WFAE, overseeing Charlotte Talks, programming, news and digital, as well as community engagement and emerging platforms as well as overall operations for WFAE.
Before joining WFAE, she helped launched LifePosts, a collaborative storytelling platform, where she was COO. Marshall served as director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University; GM and SVP of Everyday Health; executive editor and SVP at News Corporation, overseeing Beliefnet; and managing editor of Washington Post Digital.
Ju-Don serves on the board of Greater Public, which helps support public media sustainability, and was a founding board member of the National Trust for Local News. She is an advisory board member of Report for America, the Religion News Service, the Center for Journalism and Liberty and the N.C. Local News Workshop.
Marshall attended Harvard University through the Nieman Fellowship and graduated from Howard University, where she continues to mentor aspiring journalists.