Mary Ann Meek to join A1 news team

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One more staff change to announce, regarding the promotion of assistant national editor Mary Ann Meek. The staff memo from Managing Editor/Print Jon Thurber follows:

Mary Ann Meek, who has served the national desk with distinction as a line editor, wire editor, news editor and copy editor over the last 21 years, has been promoted to executive news editor and will soon join the A1 news team that also includes Weekend Editor Mary Braswell and Executive News Editor Marcy Springer.

In her new position, Mary Ann will work with other A1 team members and colleagues across the newsroom in resolving issues in the reporting, writing, editing and presentation of stories from all The Times’ news departments, Sports and Features. A1 desk editors coordinate the work of colleagues, including line editors, reporters, design and copy editors, photographers and graphic editors. The A1 desk team makes news-play decisions for the front page of the paper and for the new AA section, mediates taste and language, and handles production issues and emergencies.

A native of Los Angeles, Mary Ann grew up in Hancock Park, attended the Marlborough School and went on to USC, where she graduated with a degree in print journalism. She worked for a time at PBS, updating news feeds on its silent radio feature, before joining the copy desk at the old Herald Examiner. She came to The Times in the spring of 1989 as a copy editor and rose through the ranks in national. On her first day as an assignment editor in national, federal agents stormed the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Since then she has had a hand in covering every major national story, including five presidential elections, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

When not commuting on the freeway or rooting in Dodger Stadium, she can usually be found at home in Glendora, doing her best to organize her husband and two dogs. Like her two college-age children, she says, they rarely listen.