Victor Luckerson is a journalist and author who also serves as the president of MASTHEAD. At UA Victor was the editor-in-chief of The Crimson White from 2010-2012, and the co-founder of the online magazine Changing Tides in 2009. During his time as a student journalist he led coverage of structural racism in the white college greek system, the presence of Confederate monuments on campus, and corruption in student government elections. After a few years working as a technology and business reporter for Time magazine and The Ringer, he is now a freelance journalist who writes about Black businesses and the inequities embedded in the U.S. economy. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and he’s writing a book about Tulsa’s Black Wall Street for Random House. He hopes MASTHEAD will expand the opportunities for young journalists just finding their footing at the University of Alabama.

Ashanka Kumari is the vice president and secretary for MASTHEAD. From 2009-2013, Kumari served as a contributing writer, staff reporter, and ultimately Chief Copy Editor for The Crimson White while completing her BAC in Journalism and a BA in English. Since her time at the University of Alabama, Ashanka went on to complete her MA (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and PhD (University of Louisville) in English, Rhetoric and Composition. Now, Dr. Ashanka Kumari is associate dean of the Graduate School and associate professor of English, Rhetoric and Writing at East Texas A&M University. Ashanka brings her investment in mentorship and anti-racist research and teaching practices toward supporting and sustaining MASTHEAD.

Melissa Brown is the Tennessee bureau chief at Chalkbeat, a national nonprofit news organization where she covers state policy through an education lens. She previously covered state politics at The Tennessean, where she won statewide awards for investigative and public service work on the state's mishandling of lethal injection drugs. Before moving to Tennessee, she reported on a number of issues around Alabama, including higher education at al.com and award-winning investigative reporting on Alabama prisons at The Montgomery Advertiser newspaper. She graduated in 2013 from the University of Alabama, where she worked as news editor and online editor at The Crimson White. She currently lives in Nashville. 

Christi Parsons is a faculty member at the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. She has been a journalist for more than 30 years, reporting all over the U.S. and from 32 countries around the world. She previously was assistant managing editor at CNN; a senior editor at The Atlantic; a White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times; a national political writer, state and local reporter for The Chicago Tribune; and a local reporter for several newspapers around the South. She has covered presidential campaigns since the 1990s, and was one of the longest-serving chroniclers of the rise and presidency of Barack Obama, covering him from the beginning of his term in the Illinois Senate and throughout his time in the White House. She is a former president of the White House Correspondents' Association. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama and a master's from Yale Law School. 

Natalie Peeples is an editorial illustrator and visual journalist. While attending the University of Alabama she served as assistant design editor of The Crimson White. She now lives in Chicago and is the graphics editor of The Onion.

Amber Buck is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Alabama. She researches digital rhetoric and connects MASTHEAD to campus and to student programs in the English Department.

Shaheen Kanthawala is an Associate Professor in the Journalism & Creative Media department at the University of Alabama. As a current member of the JCM faculty at UA, she helps connect MASTHEAD to campus resources, and students to MASTHEAD. 

Jeffrey Kelly (1956 EIC) is a creative writing MFA candidate at the University of Alabama, a burgeoning freelance journalist and the editor-in-chief of Nineteen Fifty-Six. While at the University, he previously served as the writing editor for Nineteen Fifty-Six from 2023-2024 and worked at the Crimson White from 2019-2024 in various leadership roles. He’s also interned at Oxford American and NBCUniversal’s commerce vertical NBC Select. He is from Birmingham, Alabama, and through various modes of storytelling, his goal is to uplift marginalized voices and showcase the beauty of the complexities of human existence. He hopes working with MASTHEAD will continue to inform and empower student journalists of color through the support of experienced media alums. 

Maven Navarro (CW EIC) is an ex-officio board member for MASTHEAD.

Jacob Ritondo (CW ME) is an ex-officio board member for MASTHEAD and the managing editor of The Crimson White. Jacob, a senior studying chemical engineering, has worked at the paper since his freshman year. He served as assistant news editor from 2023-24 and has been managing editor since May 2024.