T-Squared: New roles for Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera and Brandon Formby

We are excited to announce an expansion of our editing ranks and new roles for two formidable story editors.

Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera, who joined us last year from KUT as our breaking news editor, will move to a new position: education and urban affairs editor. He will edit Brian Lopez, who covers K-12; Kate McGee, who covers higher education; Joshua Fechter, who covers urban affairs; and Lucy Tompkins, who covers homelessness as a fellow supported by The New York Times Headway Initiative. Alejandro, who also has worked at the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin and for the Austin American-Statesman, has distinguished himself as a deep thinker and empathetic editor who cares deeply about underserved audiences and about the ethics of news-gathering. Alejandro also will co-chair, with John Hernandez, our assistant director of audience, a new organization-wide task force on engaging Latino and Spanish-speaking audiences. He will work closely with us and senior managing editor Ayan Mittra on partnerships and on expanding the Tribune’s presence in Spanish-language media.

Brandon Formby, who has led breaking coverage of all kinds of stories as our night editor since 2019, is coming over to the day side as news editor. In this role, he will oversee our breaking news reporters — Sneha Dey, William Melhado and a writer soon to be hired — and his successor as afternoon/evening editor, a job we are posting. Brandon joined us in 2016 from The Dallas Morning News as our urban affairs reporter, based in Dallas. He has grown into his role as a steady hand with both our copy and with the fellows and staffers he has mentored and nurtured. Brandon has superb news judgment, a strong command of workflow and a wicked sense of humor that will serve him well in this demanding role. He will play a critical role in making sure urgent news gets covered, but also be discerning and selective in what we assign, recognizing the need to juggle a mix of news and enterprise.

These changes also affect two of our strongest editors.

Dave Harmon, a stalwart of our newsroom who has excelled at numerous roles here, is sad to be losing Joshua and Lucy as direct reports, but he will continue to stay busy working with Uriel J. García, our immigration reporter; Mitchell Ferman, who covers energy and the economy; Erin Douglas, our ace climate reporter; and a new environmental reporter we will hire to provide daily beat coverage as Erin carries out ambitious enterprise reporting on the myriad ways in which climate change is transforming Texas. Dave continues to direct our coverage of Uvalde in the aftermath of the state’s deadliest school shooting.

Terri Langford, who has done a brilliant job overseeing both health and education coverage since she returned to the Tribune last year, will focus more deeply on health and human services, including the post-Roe v. Wade future, the state’s weak social safety net, and the many challenges facing working families and children. She continues to work with Karen Brooks Harper, our public health reporter, and Eleanor Klibanoff, our women’s health reporter, and we expect to add reporters, over time, to cover mental health and child welfare, whom Terri also will oversee. Terri will work with these reporters on coverage that requires dogged, persistent digging, at which she excels.

This shift in editing roles, which will take effect sometime after Labor Day, enables all of us to support the needs of a growing newsroom — growth made possible by our colleagues on the development, revenue and product teams. We are so fortunate to have more journalists than ever, and while the transition from our founding generation will be a huge adjustment for all of us, the Tribune’s future is bright.

Disclosure: KUT, The New York Times and the University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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