Pender will serve as Senior Political Reporter, working closely with Mississippi Today leadership on editorial strategy and investigations.
“I’ve long admired Geoff’s work, and I couldn’t be prouder to work with him again,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief. “His deep understanding of Mississippi politics, along with the respect he’s earned over the years on both sides of the aisle, boosts our mission of providing our readers with the most informed political coverage in the state.”
Pender brings 30 years of political and government reporting experience to Mississippi Today. He most recently served as Politics and Investigative Editor at The Clarion Ledger, where he also penned a popular political column. While at The Clarion Ledger, Pender helped lead digital transformation for the legacy publication, while overseeing watchdog news teams and government reporting.
Over his 16 years with the Sun Herald, Pender’s investigations on the city and county level led to reform, prosecution and conviction. He went on to lead the capitol bureau as Political and Investigative Editor, and was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Hurricane Katrina coverage.
“I am excited about this opportunity to join the talented news team at Mississippi Today,” said Pender. “I love my native Mississippi, and Mississippi Today has made and continues to make it a better place with its impactful journalism. I am honored to be a part of this team and contribute to Mississippi Today’s important mission.”
Originally from Florence, Miss., Pender is a journalism graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including multiple Mississippi Press Association and other regional and national awards for his reporting, columns and his freedom of information efforts.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.