Jordyn Brown has been chosen as the Ethos Editor in Chief for the 2016-2017 academic year.
In June, Brown will take over the post from current Editor in Chief Jonathan Bach. To prepare for the transition, she will work closely with Bach on leadership responsibilities, including facilitating staff meetings and story placement for the summer 2016 issue of Ethos.
After multiple competitive candidates were interviewed, the graduating senior staff of Ethos chose Brown to fill the position.
Brown, a junior pursuing a degree in journalism at the School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC), has been with Ethos for two years. First, she was a writer covering Arts & Culture, producing reviews for the magazine’s front-of-book section. This year, Brown moved into an Associate Editor position with the award-winning student magazine at the University of Oregon.
She has worked with The Emerald as an Arts & Culture writer, for which she has produced a number of cover stories. Her experience with the Emerald Media Group (EMG) is also a boon for Ethos’ senior staff, as the magazine merged with EMG this year. Brown will attend weekly meetings with Bach and EMG President and Publisher Charlie Weaver to strategize for the magazine’s future.
Emerson Malone is the Arts & Culture editor at The Emerald. He makes note of Brown’s willingness to take on whatever story is needed, describing her as “so contagiously excited about any assignment that we ask of her.”
Brown is a star reporter who has “made the Arts & Culture desk shine,” he says.
The Ethos graduating senior staff took Brown’s positivity — as well as her penchant for working alongside writers to produce the best copy possible — into account when it made the hiring decision.
Veteran reporter Lisa Heyamoto, a journalism professor at the SOJC, is impressed with the student’s ability to stay organized and with her maturity. She taught Brown in one of the school’s reporting classes and now teaches her in an upper-division feature writing course.
Heyamoto says: “She has an exceptional outlook and attitude, an infectious kind of enthusiasm, and the kind of personality that people want to be on board with.”
Brown says she wants to expand the Ethos World section of the magazine — which has been a centerpiece for the magazine’s 2015-16 editions — and add elements such as memoir and short fiction. Having first found out about Ethos during an introductory journalism class called Gateway to Media, she also looks forward to bringing in “fresh voices” by hiring on underclassmen and women.