Barbara T. Roessner

Roessner is founding editor of The New Bedford Light. She is an award-winning newspaper editor who has devoted her career to public service journalism as a news reporter, political writer, opinion columnist, writing coach, college teacher and news executive. She is a former managing editor of The Hartford Courant, where she supervised all aspects of content creation, including high-impact investigative reporting projects and creation of 60-plus hyperlocal news websites. She helped lead the Courant newsroom to one Pulitzer Prize and three Pulitzer finalists. As executive editor of Hearst Connecticut Media Group, she oversaw an amalgam of five daily newspapers, more than a dozen weekly newspapers and an array of digital products. Ms. Roessner is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where she has taught creative non-fiction writing and been honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award. She was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, and has twice been a Pulitzer juror. She currently serves on the board of the New England First Amendment Coalition, advocating for open government and press freedoms, and is a member of the Professional Advisory Committee to the University of Connecticut Journalism Department. She volunteers at Our Sisters’ School in New Bedford.