Carol Stevens, who has worked at USA Today for 14 years, is leaving her post as managing editor/news of the Gannett paper to become the media relations director for the American Bar Association. Stevens took a five-month break from the paper in winter ’98-’99 to work at the Baltimore Sun as an assistant editorial page editor, then returned to USA Today in that same position, becoming editorial page editor in 2002 and managing editor in 2004, when Ken Paulson became editor. Stevens starts her new job in about three weeks, on Nov. 7. No word yet on whether USA Today will replace Stevens.
ABA Selects USA Today’s Stevens as Director of Media Relations
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 19, 2011— The American Bar Association has named veteran Washington journalist Carol Stevens to be its director of the Communications and Media Relations Division.
For the past seven years, Stevens has been managing editor of USA Today, one of the nation’s largest circulated daily newspapers. Previously, she was the editorial page editor of the newspaper, an assistant editorial page editor of The Baltimore Sun, and a reporter for both USA Today and the Washington bureau of The Detroit News.
In her new role, Stevens will oversee a staff of 20, and be responsible for managing communications and media relations for the ABA, which has principal offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Stevens will be based in D.C., and will begin her new duties on Nov. 7.
“Carol Stevens brings a very strong news background and a great reputation for integrity and achievement,” said ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, the member-in-charge of the Northern Kentucky offices of Frost Brown Todd LLC, a regional law firm with offices in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Indiana. “We’re absolutely delighted she’s bringing her considerable talents and skills to the ABA.”
Stevens graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications and is a member of the Gridiron Club in Washington and the American Society of News Editors.
With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.
