The Detroit Free Press on Wednesday announced the appointment of Nicole Avery Nichols — a veteran journalist with more than three decades’ experience in the industry — to serve as the newspaper’s top editor.

Avery Nichols, 53, most recently served as editor-in-chief of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news outlet focused on education. She previously spent 20 years at the Free Press, where she started as a reporter and later took on positions including features editor, current affairs editor and senior news director, according to a news release.

“I firmly believe in centering people and their experiences within the heart of journalism, and I am thrilled to be leading one of America’s most powerful newsrooms as we tell the stories that matter most,” Avery Nichols said in a statement. “I look forward to engaging new audiences amid our ever-changing and diversifying media landscape.”

Avery Nichols graduated from Tuskegee University with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1992, according to her LinkedIn profile. She went on to earn a master’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Avery Nichols started her journalism career in 1993 at the Utica Observer-Dispatch in New York, then went on to become a features writer at what was then The Syracuse Newspapers. In 1997, she started a stint at The Detroit News during which she covered fashion and beauty trends. Her initial 20-year tenure at the Free Press began in 2000, when she started there as a features writer.