Dustin Slade. Photo by
Jenna Kingsley
Goizueta Business School junior Dustin Slade was elected the next Editor-in-Chief of The Emory Wheel Friday by the Wheel’s Editorial Board and staff.
Slade ran unopposed and received 22 votes. He and his incoming executive board will replace the current executive board, including current Editor-in-Chief and College senior Priyanka Krishnamurthy, after Spring Break.
Slade began writing for the Wheel’s News section fall of his freshman year and became News Editor in fall 2013 before switching to Digital Editor early this semester.
Slade is pursuing a Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA) with a concentration in finance, as well as strategy and management consulting. Slade is the vice president of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and is also a member of the Goizueta Business School Honor Council.
He served as Public Relations Chair for Emory’s Committee on Academic Integrity from 2013 to 2014.
Taking the role of Editor-in-Chief “is something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time,” Slade said. When asked whether his Emory Greek Life involvement will impact his leadership at the Wheel, he said, “I don’t feel like it’s going to influence the way I run things.”
As for putting his business school experience to use, he promised to increase the Wheel’s operational efficiency.
As part of his vision for the Wheel’s future, Slade included in his candidate statement to improve the paper’s online presence, apply new management techniques, add a digital editor to the executive team and reexamine the editorial board and production structure.
In a speech to the Wheel’s editorial board, he also promised to use his business background to examine the paper’s finances “and work with our business team to take these challenges head on.”
Krishnamurthy, the outgoing editor-in-chief, said she feels very confident about Slade’s management abilities.
“Not only does he have the experience to successfully lead the paper, but he has the passion necessary to lead it well,” Krishnamurthy said.
Current Executive Editor and College senior Sonam Vashi said she thinks Slade “is going to bring a lot of much-needed business experience in revamping the Wheel’s finances,” collaborating with the Wheel’s business team from the editorial side.
She added that the Wheel’s new executive board “is going to further its presence on campus” and “adhere to stringent journalistic ethics”.
News Editor and College junior Rupsha Basu, who has served as co-news editor with Slade in the past, said she’s “excited to see what the next year has in store.”
— By Lydia O’Neal, Asst. News Editor
A College senior studying economics and French, Lydia O’Neal has written for The Morning Call, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Consumer Reports Magazine and USA Today College. She began writing for the News section during her freshman year and began illustrating for the Wheel in the spring of her junior year. Lydia is studying in Paris for the fall 2015 semester.
