Meet the Editorial Board of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
The Editorial Board at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin is responsible for all editorials that appear in our 11 publications. Have a question?
Contact Ideas Lab Editor David D. Haynes at david.haynes@jrn.com. Want to send us a Letter to the Editor? Email: jsedit@jrn.com (for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel only).
Here are the members of our state board:
David D. Haynes
Dave, the editor of the Ideas Lab, leads the Journal Sentinel and USA TODAY-Wisconsin Editorial Board. Dave has spent much of his career at the Journal Sentinel, joining the organization in 1994 as the Milwaukee Sentinel’s Monday Business editor after working for newspapers in Indiana and Massachusetts. While working in Indiana in 1983, Dave was part of a staff that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a devastating flood. Before before joining the
Editorial Board in 2006, Dave served as business editor and education editor. He became editor of the opinion pages in 2011. In 2017, Dave created the Ideas Lab, a blend of solutions-focused reporting and commentary that focuses on evidence-based best practices to solve problems. He also writes occasional opinion columns under his own name.
James E. Causey
A lifelong Milwaukee resident, James started working at the Milwaukee Sentinel at 15 as a high school intern in 1986. He worked as a news reporter, business reporter and assistant business editor before joining the Journal Sentinel’s editorial board in 2008, after spending a year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. In recent years, James has focused on in-depth projects about problems facing Milwaukee. His award-winning work includes a look at poverty and racism through the eyes of his third grade class (“What Happened to Us”), an in-depth examination of the impact of open housing marches a half century ago (“50-Year Ache”); the impact of a community garden on young Black boys (“Cultivating a Community”); and a yearlong investigation into solutions for the often racially charged problems that hold back many people of color in Milwaukee (“Milwaukee’s Promise”). James also writes opinion columns for the Ideas Lab under his own name.
James Fitzhenry
Jim is executive editor of USA TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin, serving communities in the northeastern and central part of the state. Prior to that role, he served as the lead editor of a team that produced the nationally recognized “Kids in Crisis” series, including holding 42 town halls in communities across the state raising awareness about the teen suicide crisis. He helped conceive the “You’re Not Alone” documentary on the youth mental health crisis, which has aired multiple times on public television and been given free of charge to dozens of schools around the country. He has deep knowledge of key issues facing the Fox Valley and Central Wisconsin, having spent 20 years at the Oshkosh Northwestern serving as editor, managing editor, and editorial page editor. A Marquette University graduate, he started his career as a reporter in St. Joseph, Mo.
Chelsey Lewis
Chelsey has been a features writer for the Journal Sentinel since 2012, covering travel and outdoor activities. Chelsey grew up camping, hiking and biking all over Wisconsin, from her hometown of Pewaukee to a family cabin in the Northwoods. She has been writing about the places that make Wisconsin special since 2009, including a summer spent visiting every one of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. She is a former writer and editor for Wisconsin Trails magazine. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She refrains from discussions about any issues that cross into her features writing beat.
Jill Williams
Jill joined the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff in 2000 and is now deputy editor for Features and Lifestyle content for the Journal Sentinel and USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. She has been a reporter and editor in New Jersey and Philadelphia covering news and features. As a senior leader at the Journal Sentinel, she also works to ensure the newsroom fulfills its commitment to culturally inclusive coverage. For many years, she has been responsible for launching new products and concepts aimed at audience growth and has served as a newsroom liaison to the marketing and advertising departments. She is a graduate of the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism and was a McCormick Fellow in the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Advanced Executive Program. Jill has served on the editorial board in recent years and recuses herself from discussion about editorials regarding any issues covered by the Features and Lifestyle team.
George Stanley
George is editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and regional editor of the USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin. Before becoming editor in 2015, George was managing editor in charge of news operations, a post he had held since since 1997. As managing editor, he built the Journal Sentinel’s project journalism process. The newspaper’s work has had tremendous community impact while receiving virtually every major national journalism award, including nine Pulitzer Prize finalists and three Pulitzer Prize winners. Before becoming managing editor, George was business editor of the Journal Sentinel and the Milwaukee Sentinel. He joined the Sentinel as a reporter in 1989 after working as outdoors editor and environmental reporter at the Wichita Eagle, as a writer for Ducks Unlimited magazine, and as a reporter and editor for the Lake Geneva Regional News. He grew up in Green Bay and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently president of the national News Leaders Association.