A photographer and active feminist known by her colleagues for her love of bats and constant cheerful attitude, sophomore Megan Magray has been named editor-in-chief of Student Life for the 2015-16 academic year.

Stephen Huber

Her appointment was announced at Friday’s annual banquet of Washington University Student Media Inc., whose board of directors oversees Student Life.

Hailing from Tampa, Fla., Magray, 19, is studying English literature and communication design. As editor-in-chief, Magray will be in charge of managing staff, supervising the production of Student Life and making executive decisions.

Megan started with the paper during her freshman year, working as a designer and photographer. She currently serves on the paper’s senior staff as its graphics editor.

Her career in student journalism has spanned over six years, including her time as editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper, The Berkeley Fanfare.

Magray hopes that her experience with various areas of production will enable her to lead the paper with an understanding of its many components.

“Realizing how somebody with my skillset differs from past editors-in-chief and thinking about how my skills can apply to the position interested me,” Magray said. “The paper right now, it’s great; there are so many great things about it. It is the work of editors-in-chief before me, a bunch of people who have been doing this for so many years, and it’s a great product, but there are things that we can improve upon. I’m not trying to overhaul what has been built—I want to add on to things.”

Magray noted three things in particular that she wants to work on in the coming year: “how we can increase diversity in the office, more long-form pieces and larger stories that people will be working on for a month at a time—the kind of stories that will engage people more and not just the daily news stories—and lastly, our relationship with the [University] community,” Magray said.

According to current editor-in-chief Zach Kram, Magray will bring a new perspective and plenty of energy to the role.

“Megan [Magray] brings tremendous enthusiasm to the position. It’s clear from the application process and what she’s done with the paper that she has tremendous passion for Student Life and will bring a lot of energy to the job, which is necessary because it’s a day-in-day-out process,” Kram said.

Magray will assume her role as editor-in-chief on April 1, and her term will last through the following spring.