The Hatchet’s staff elected junior Fiona Riley as the newspaper’s next editor in chief Saturday afternoon. 

Riley, a political communication major hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will helm The Hatchet’s 122nd volume, which begins in May. 

Riley’s goals for the next volume include strengthening relationships with the GW and D.C. community, broadening the perspectives The Hatchet covers, building out its business section and expanding the responsibilities of reporters and staff writers.

As a senior news editor for Volume 121, Riley directed coverage of student activism in response to the war in Gaza, the 2024 election, the fallout of President Donald Trump’s return to power and upheaval within the GW Police Department. 

In Volume 120, Riley served as the assistant news editor for the Academics beat, reporting on professors’ confusion over campus security policies during a shelter-in-place order, the retirement of master’s programs in the Elliott School of International Affairs and faculty conversations about artificial intelligence, academic freedom and the arming of GWPD.

Outside the walls of The Hatchet townhouse, Riley has reported on housing policy, unhoused shelters and D.C. legislation for Street Sense, a street newspaper. 

When not editing articles, Riley enjoys walking with friends, diving into a good book and watching nature documentaries. 

Riley will also become the president of Hatchet Publications, Inc., pending approval by The Hatchet’s Board of Directors.

The Hatchet is an editorially and financially independent student newspaper that has served the GW and Foggy Bottom community since 1904. It is the second-oldest D.C. newspaper after the Washington Post.