Mountain State Spotlight hires Mary Kay McFarland as Managing Editor

Mountain State Spotlight has hired Mary Kay McFarland as managing editor to guide our reporting staff as we tell stories of intense local importance and broad statewide relevance.

“I’m excited to work on in-depth journalism that takes the time to unpack the nuanced challenges facing our state,” she said. “This reporting includes an invitation to West Virginians: contribute to the discussion and learn about the issues that affect us all.”

Mary Kay has worked with West Virginia news media for more than two decades. She began her journalism career as a photojournalist for The Exponent Telegram and then went to The Charleston Gazette, where her love for a variety of storytelling mediums eventually made her the Multimedia Editor.

In 2009, she began teaching journalism at West Virginia University where she was the director of the West Virginia Uncovered program developing multimedia training for state newspapers and facilitating their working relationships with students learning community journalism. While at WVU, Mary Kay led and collaborated on award-winning projects focused on the effects of the opioid epidemic on West Virginia’s children, the mass incarceration of women in the state and the information needs of underserved communities.

“I am thrilled that Mary Kay is joining our team as we continue to provide West Virginians with the journalism they want, need and deserve,” said Ken Ward Jr., founding editor-in-chief. “As  Mountain State Spotlight turns four years old this month, we are fortunate to have someone with her skills and her dedication to West Virginia in this important role.”

Mountain State Spotlight, founded in the spring of 2020, has one of the largest reporting staffs in West Virginia. Its mission is to help West Virginians make our state a better place by producing “sustained outrage” journalism that exposes abuses of power by government, business and other institutions.

Mary Kay has an undergraduate degree in English from Bethany College and a masters degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. She is from Elkins, West Virginia, home of the Forest Festival, where you will find her every October, enjoying lumberjack contests and Polish sausage.

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