Melissa Wantz will make the commute from Ventura County to Harvard-Westlake each day to lead the upper school communications department, serve as the Chronicle and Big Red adviser and teach journalism classes.

She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and received her master’s in English literature from CSUN.

Wantz previously taught at Balboa Middle School for eight years and later began teaching at Foothill Technology High School where she advised the Foothill Dragon Press website, taught an English class and oversaw technology and communications. She developed a digital bootcamp for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, where she is also a judge for their national competitions and serves as board president.

“We want to transition the way the Chronicle publishes to become more digital first,” Wantz said. “When news breaks, it gets immediately released to the public because it’s all about serving your primary audience.”