Newsroom leader Alex Mena, who rose from answering phones as a teenager at the Miami Herald to become managing editor of the storied newsroom, on Monday was named executive editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. Mena, 50, becomes the Miami Herald’s first immigrant executive editor. A Nicaraguan child who came across the Rio Grande on his father’s shoulders, Mena worked his way up to lead sports and metro news departments, el Nuevo Herald, and helped direct the Herald’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Surfside condo collapse.

In his new role, Mena will also oversee the executive editor of the Bradenton Herald as Florida Regional Editor for McClatchy, the parent company of the three Florida publications. Mena has been overseeing all three newsrooms in an interim role since February.

Mena said his core priorities will include growing the Herald tradition of exceptional accountability journalism, and strengthening the news teams’ connections with our community. “We have one of the best newsrooms in the country,” Mena said. “The Herald has done a lot of great work in the past, and we have so much more to accomplish.”