Monday, January 14, 2008

Texas ACLU hires former newspaper editor as new chief

My former employers at the ACLU of Texas - an organization led mostly by lawyers in the past - appear to have decided to go in a different direction with the hiring of Terri Burke as their new Executive Director. She's a former editor at the Abilene Reporter News and a past deputy managing editor at the Austin American Statesman. Burke replaces interim director Richard Alvarado, who by all accounts did a fantastic job after the previous E.D., Will Harrell, left last spring to accept an appointment by Governor Perry as Texas Youth Commission ombudsman. Buena suerte, amiga!

Photo via the Abilene Reporter News

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The ACLU of Texas is a JOKE and run by jokesters! First hand account....

Gritsforbreakfast said...

They've had some ups and downs - on that I could offer my own first-hand account, were I a tad less gentlemanly! But it's also true what I said that Richard Alvarado seems to have done a good job of creating a better environment for a frankly pretty alienated staff, and things improved, I'm told, under his interim watch.

Just like at TYC, top leadership of an organization is critical and it's worth giving the new gal a chance. From her background in the newsroom she should have management chops, be knowledgeable on a range of issues, and experienced handling quirky personalities on weird schedules. For those reasons and a few more, she sounds like a good choice to me.