Linda Blackford became the Kentucky Lantern editor in April 2026. She has been an award-winning Kentucky journalist for the past 30 years, covering K-12 education, higher education and investigations for the Lexington Herald-Leader. She was the newspaper’s opinion editor and columnist for eight years before joining the Kentucky Lantern. A Virginia native, she attended the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and worked at the New York Daily News and the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette.
