Nancy Kaffer, a national award-winning columnist, has been named editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Kaffer, 47, is the first woman in the newspaper’s 191-year history to hold that title.

In more than 10 years at the Free Press, she has been a columnist and member of the editorial board. She wrote about politics, policy and the complicated relationship between the two, from Detroit’s historic municipal bankruptcy to the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in Detroit to the Flint water crisis.

She believes that the Free Press’ editorial page, in print and online, should reflect the diversity of our community.

"The opinion section is a home for traditional columns, commentary, analysis, personal essays ... all of this can fit under the editorial page umbrella,” Kaffer said. “A good column takes you somewhere you couldn't go on your own, whether that's a place or an idea. I'm working with freelance writers whose backgrounds go beyond journalism who can do exactly that.”

She oversees publication of all commentary and letters to the editor submitted by community members, as well as the Sunday opinion section in print, commissions freelance pieces, writes her own column and contributes to unsigned editorials. She'll serve on the senior leadership team, which helps to decide newsroom policy and priorities and to support the staff.

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Kaffer is a native of Mobile, Alabama. Before joining the Free Press in 2012, she was a staff writer for Crain’s Detroit Business, where she covered the city of Detroit. She has also worked at publications including the Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American, where she covered K-12 education and post-Katrina recovery in Mississippi’s Pine Belt.

Kaffer was the 2015 recipient of the Scripps Howard Walker Stone Award for Opinion Writing and 2016 winner of the Shorenstein Center’s Nyhan Prize. She lives in southwest Detroit with her husband and son.

You can reach her by email at nkaffer@freepress.com.

“The brilliant journalists who preceded me are a tough act to follow. I’m grateful for their mentorship. It is an honor and a privilege to have stewardship of the Free Press editorial page,” Kaffer said.

Brian Dickerson served as editorial page editor until January, when he accepted a buyout.

Anjanette Delgado is interim editor of the Detroit Free Press. Reach her at adelgado@freepress.com.

Thank you to Bill McGraw, Ron Dzwonkowski (who held the job from 1998-2009), Peter Gavrilovich and Gerry Skora for helping us confirm our suspicion that Kaffer is the first woman to hold the top opinion job at the Free Press.  

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Nancy Kaffer named Detroit Free Press editorial page editor