By Maria Stefanoudakis (A&S '27); Photo: Leila Navidi for the Star Tribune
Boston College alumna Kathleen Hennessey (A&S '98) did not discover her love for journalism in a classroom, newsroom, or internship.
No—the newly named editor of The Minnesota Star Tribune found her passion for journalism at a museum.
After graduating from BC with a bachelor’s degree in history, Hennessey worked at the Hubert H Humphrey Museum in her home state of Minnesota for a year. There, she was put in charge of a program that involved teaching local students to write news stories. To do that, though, Hennessey first had to learn the craft herself.
That was Hennessey’s first exposure to journalism. Since then, she has not stopped writing.
“I just sort of caught the bug,” she said.
Hennessey eventually went back to school and studied journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In the years since, her career has included stops at some of the nation’s top news organizations, including the Washington bureaus of The Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press, where she covered the Obama White House.
Hennessey was part of a team of reporters across the country that covered the 2020 Presidential Election for the AP. Most recently, she worked as a politics editor for The New York Times, where she edited enterprise pieces during the 2024 election that explored President Donald Trump's relationship with the Manoverse, the grass-roots efforts to question the integrity of the U.S. election system, and why Elon Musk dismantled fact-checkers on X.
Now, though, Hennessey is making the switch from covering national politics, instead focusing on something much closer to home—literally.
“It was sort of an attempt to find some balance between my family life and my career, and to be closer to family,” Hennessey said about moving back to Minnesota, where she was raised, several years ago. “I’ve been really, really lucky in that I’ve been able to both do that and continue to find extraordinary opportunities in journalism.”
This month, as she takes the helm of the Star Tribune at a remarkable moment in politics, Hennessey says she’s relishing the opportunity to take on a fresh set of challenges. And she’s already begun thinking about the questions she must ask herself in order to succeed.
“The new challenge for me will be thinking a little more about the coverage, broadly,” Hennessey said. “What are people searching and wanting to know more about, and how do we provide journalism that answers their questions—that sort of meets their interests and uncovers new information? And it’ll be sort of a leadership challenge and a journalistic challenge all in one.”
Just as Hennessey recognized the value of journalism back in the Humphrey Museum, she hopes that her new role will give her the chance to persuade young audiences that journalism—and local news, specifically—is vitally important.
“One of my missions is to try to persuade younger people that this is worth their time and their money,” Hennessey said. “[Local news] educates and engages and connects people in really important ways.”