CoJMC Jdays speaker, Randy Essex, has been executive editor of The Omaha World-Herald since Jan. 6. He’s a Nebraska native and College of Journalism and Mass Communications graduate. He worked at newspapers in Abilene, Texas, and Boise, Idaho, before spending 18 years in editing roles at The Des Moines Register, eight years at the Detroit Free Press and two years at the Cincinnati Enquirer. He’s overseen coverage of the Iowa caucuses, the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, and won the 2016 Burl Osborne Editorial Leadership award from the American Society of News Editors for editorials on immigrant rights when he was publisher-editor of the Glenwood Springs Post Independent in western Colorado.