Alex Mena is Executive Editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald and Senior Vice President of Local News for McClatchy Media. He also serves on the Knight Foundation’s Journalism Advisory Committee, working with journalism leaders from across the country to help shape conversations about the future of local news.

Mena has spent more than three decades in journalism, building a career that began as a sports clerk at the Miami Herald and evolved into leading one of the nation’s most influential regional news organizations.

An immigrant from Nicaragua, Mena came to the United States at age 11, an experience that shaped his commitment to opportunity, community and public service journalism. He has held a wide range of newsroom leadership roles and now oversees award-winning journalism serving South Florida’s diverse communities.

Mena was part of the Miami Herald team awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the Surfside condominium collapse. Under his leadership, the newsroom also earned a 2026 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation recognizing Julie K. Brown’s reporting, as well as Pulitzer Prize finalist honors in 2024 for Editorial Writing and in 2026 for Local Reporting.

He serves on the boards of Miami Herald Charities and the Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media at Florida International University and previously served as president of the South Florida Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Florida Society of News Editors. In 2024, he was inducted into the Miami Dade College Alumni Hall of Fame.