The Justice unanimously elected Sofia Gonzalez ’23 to the position of editor in chief for 2021-2022. The election took place over Zoom, on May 6, and was prefaced by a Q&A session with Gonzalez regarding her plans and qualifications for the position of editor in chief.

Gonzalez, a Biology and HSSP double major and Chemistry and Psychology double minor, began her time on the Justice in fall 2019, her first semester at Brandeis. She started off editing articles in the Copy section. 

One day she was lingering in the Justice office after a meeting for Copy and ended up joining a meeting for the Features section. It was there that her time writing for Features, and eventually serving as editor of the section, began. Gonzalez headed up the Features section until spring 2021, when she became deputy editor and began training to be editor in chief. 

Cameron Cushing ’23 joins Gonzalez in leading the Justice this year as managing editor. A Politics and Business double major, Cushing joined the Justice his first semester at Brandeis in fall 2019. Like Gonzalez, he began in the Copy section, before rising to co-Copy editor. He served in that position until spring 2021, when he was voted up to deputy editor. Later on in the spring, Cushing was voted up to his current position as managing editor. 

In a Sept. 8 interview with the Justice, Gonzalez spoke about her priorities for the paper this year. After a year of exclusively publishing online due to COVID-19 safety concerns, Gonzalez said that her focus is primarily to help the Justice get back into the swing of publishing print editions. “Since I only did a couple of print issues, I think the biggest challenge has been trying to remember what that was like,” she said. Gonzalez added that “being able to identify how best to support everyone” is another priority of hers as the Justice makes the transition back to print. 

On Sept. 9, Cushing spoke with the Justice about his plans as managing editor. His focus for the coming year is on filling gaps in knowledge regarding Justice operations that may have gotten lost due to the pandemic, as well as “rebuilding office culture,” he said. After a year of virtual-only activities and meetings for the Justice, Cushing said he’s looking forward to getting people back into the Justice office to spend “real time together” and get to know students who joined over the summer. 

Gonzalez expressed a similar sentiment. “I’m really excited for everyone to be back in the office,” she said. “Last production night, a lot of people were here. It was really great because you don’t feel like you’re doing it by yourself … It’s really nice to feel like you’re part of a small community that really likes journalism and really wants to see the paper thrive.”