An announcement from National Editor Mike Semel, Deputy National Editor Amy Fiscus and America Editor Cathleen Decker:
We are happy to announce that Gina Harkins, a versatile editor and deft manager who successfully helped lead the General Assignment team, has permanently joined National as a deputy America editor.
Gina is working with correspondents in Washington and around the country to drive coverage of major breaking news events and shepherd deeply reported enterprise work that illuminates America during a period of profound change.
Gina joined The Post as Morning Mix editor in 2021, guiding a team of journalists writing off-the-news features in the overnight hours on everything from the Surfside condo collapse, the war in Ukraine and Mikhail Gorbachev's death. She demonstrated strong leadership and editing skills, as well as an eye for finding compelling and sometimes quirky stories that draw the interest of readers. Included in the aptly named mix: Pieces on a daughter who was worried about her 80-year-old mom when she didn't text her Wordle score, only to find she was being held hostage in her home; a woman who'd arranged for a flash mob to crash her own funeral (to the tune of "Another One Bites the Dust"); and a reformed criminal who wanted "one last score" arranging a heist to steal Dorothy’s famous ruby red slippers.
Last year, Gina co-led the merger between Morning Mix and its dayside counterpart General Assignment team, helping to manage the newly unified 20-member department and develop its revised mission. She has worked closely with the America team throughout her time with Mix and GA and has been exceptionally generous in allowing us to dispatch reporters to cover campus protests, mass shootings, natural disasters and other major events.
Since August, Gina has been working with National Politics, helping to lift the huge load there by editing coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign, the Trump transition and other stories, along with the Early Brief and 5-Minute Fix newsletters.
In all of her roles, she has also shepherded reporters' longer-term enterprise reporting on national and international topics and worked closely with visual and design teams on interactive stories.
Before joining The Post, Gina covered the military for more than a decade for the independent Military Times and Military.com, including stories about sailors on the second submarine to integrate women creating a “rape list,” female Marines being singled out for having children, and two injured recruits getting trapped at boot camp for 500 days. She was also a regular contributor to USA Today magazines, where she covered everything from NASA missions to mass shooting victims’ heroic actions.
Gina has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School and a bachelor’s in political science from Northeastern Illinois University.
Please join us in formally welcoming Gina to National. She began her new assignment last week.
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