Janita Poe joined the Southern Region Education Board in 2023 as news manager. A veteran journalist who was raised in Atlanta, Janita has worked as a staff reporter and bureau chief for six news organizations, including the Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and AL.com in Montgomery, Alabama. Janita earned a bachelor’s in mass communication from Florida State University, a master’s in journalism from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in communication from Georgia State University, where she received a 2020-2021 SREB Doctoral Scholars Program dissertation-year fellowship.