Jennifer Peter has been named editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, the Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom that covers criminal justice. When Peter joins The Marshall Project on Sept. 29, she will become the third editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, replacing Susan Chira, who stepped down in December of last year.
“Jennifer is the kind of leader and editor who has spent her career helping produce groundbreaking investigations and journalism, sometimes under the most trying circumstances,” said Katrice Hardy, CEO of The Marshall Project.
Peter started her career as a reporter, working for 12 years at newspapers in Idaho, Connecticut and Virginia before joining The Associated Press in Boston, which she later left for The Globe.
At The Globe, she quickly rose from a regional editor in 2004, to becoming the politics editor, city editor, and then metro editor in 2010. She oversaw The Globe’s Boston Marathon bombing coverage, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News.
In 2018, Jennifer was promoted to the role of managing editor, helping spearhead a digital revolution focused on an urgent response to news and trends, mission-driven enterprise and data-informed decision-making. In 2019, she conceived The Valedictorian Project, which traced the fate of 100 Boston students who graduated at the top of their class a decade earlier, but later faced socioeconomic barriers in reaching their potential. It was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in local reporting. In 2023, she added the title of chief of staff to her role.
“I’m beyond thrilled to be joining such a high-caliber news organization with such a critical mission, particularly at this time in our history,” Peter said. “The Marshall Project was launched to meet the urgency of this moment, when so much of the criminal justice system is being reshaped.”
Peter is joining The Marshall Project just after it celebrated its 10th anniversary. The national outlet recently launched a newsletter focusing on immigration, while continuing its groundbreaking reporting on issues such as the consequences of erroneous drug testing of new mothers and the expansion of private prisons to accommodate ICE detention.
Locally, the nonprofit news organization recently exposed questionable practices by a judge in Cleveland, who is now facing discipline. The St. Louis team expanded upon a multi-year reporting project and launched “Remember Me,” a set of powerful murals in St. Louis honoring victims of the more than 1000 unsolved recent homicides in the city.
Peter will assume editorial leadership of a news team of more than 60.
Since January, Geraldine Sealey has served as interim editor-in-chief in addition to her managing editor role, helping the news organization continue its run of remarkable and innovative journalism, Hardy said.
“Geraldine has led this news organization with passion and ambition, and I am so thankful to her for taking on another leadership role on an interim basis alongside her already demanding managing editor responsibilities,” Hardy said.