From staff reports

For nearly 30 years Leesha Faulkner has covered news from the oil wells of Puckett, Miss., to the sands of Saudi Arabia.

Now, the 52-year-old veteran journalist has been named editor of The Selma Times-Journal, and

its website selmatimesjournal.com, replacing Tammy Leytham, who has left the newspaper to pursue other opportunities.

During the last year, Faulkner has worked as county-courts reporter for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, Miss., where she also writes a blog and was instrumental in initiating video reporting on the newspaper’s Web site.

Prior to her stint in Tupelo, she worked as managing editor of the Greenwood Commonwealth in Greenwood, Miss., an award-winning community daily in the Mississippi Delta. While there, she took an active part in the community, serving on the boards of directors of United Way, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

A native of Macon, Miss., Faulkner began her career as a sportswriter for The Pearl Press, rapidly rising to become one of the youngest weekly newspaper editors in Mississippi. Her other stops include working as an assistant city editor at The Monroe News-Star and as publisher/editor of Southern Gaming, both in Louisiana. She also served as a writer, then editorial writer and lead investigative reporter at The Clarion-Ledger/Jackson Daily News in Jackson, Miss.

While working for The Clarion-Ledger she wrote at length about the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and eventually was instrumental in having the Commission’s files opened at the University of Southern Mississippi. The work put her on a team of reporters that earned two Pulitzer Prize nominations for investigative reporting.

She was graduated with honors from Millsaps College in Jackson and holds a master’s degree in history from Mississippi College in Clinton.

Faulkner sometimes takes breaks from the news to spend time with her grandson and his parents, who live in North Carolina.

Faulkner’s first full day on the job will be Nov. 8.