Chisenhall, Sherry
Sherry Chisenhall led The Wichita Eagle’s newsroom for 16 years, joining the paper in 2000 as managing editor after editing and reporting for 14 years at The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. In 2004, she was named The Eagle’s top editor and vice president/news.
During her tenure at The Eagle, the newspaper drew national recognition for narrative storytelling and investigative journalism. The newspaper fought relentlessly for better open records laws and government transparency, winning key lawsuits in pursuit of open government.
The newspaper published several serial narrative series, developing a reputation for its commitment to innovative storytelling that engaged readers.
Sherry supervised several award-winning watchdog investigations, the most prominent a story detailing how prison parolees, who were supposed to be under state supervision, committed serious crimes, including murder. That story cost four years of legal fights to pry open closed records and won a national freedom of information award.
In addition to its own court cases, the Eagle joined with the Kansas Press Association and news organizations across the state to finally open criminal court affidavits to the public and get a shield law passed in Kansas to protect journalists’ notes and sources.
The Eagle was also a force in strengthening records laws by making public officials’ emails from private accounts subject to the Kansas Open Records Act, spurred in part by the newspaper’s reporting on the governor’s use of private accounts for public business.
Sherry’s Eagle tenure was also marked by the newsroom’s reporting on the reemergence in 2004 of the BTK serial killer, the pursuit of suspects and the arrest and trial of Dennis Rader. The BTK reporting team’s book, published by Harper Collins, told the behind-the-scenes story of how that investigation unfolded.
Under her watch, The Eagle’s newsroom was a leader in the transition to digital news, making a fundamental shift from print-driven to continuous news cycle.
She characterizes The Eagle’s journalism of those years as driven by a team of highly talented reporters, editors and visual journalists with expertise across a broad spectrum: Kansas history and culture, narrative storytelling, aviation, the outdoors, weather, local sports and data-driven investigative reporting among them.
Sherry began her professional career as a copy editor at the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. She’s a native of south-central Illinois and earned a B.S. in journalism and political science from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
In 2016, she returned to The Charlotte Observer as managing editor. Ten months later, she was named the paper’s executive editor and vice president/news, also overseeing The Herald of Rock Hill and the Fort Mill Times in South Carolina. In 2020, she added business responsibilities as The Observer’s president.
She has been a four-time Pulitzer Prize juror and during her tenure in Wichita was a trustee of the William Allen White Foundation and a member of the Elliott School Advisory Board at Wichita State. She served on the boards of the Kansas Press Association and the N.C. Press Association and is currently an advisory board member of the Widener Global Leaders Program at Wichita State University. At The Observer, Sherry was a founding member of the N.C. News Collaborative and the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative.
She retired in late 2021. She lives in Tega Cay, SC, and spends a couple of months each year in Wichita.