ProPublica announced today that Cynthia Gordy has been appointed as ProPublica’s marketing director, a new position. Gordy will take charge of devising new methods for enhancing the award-winning newsroom’s brand and help shape a range of its outward-facing activities. She will work closely with newly-promoted public relations director Minhee Cho, and both she and Cho will report to president Richard Tofel.

Gordy comes to ProPublica after serving as deputy communications director for Advancement Project, where she developed comprehensive media campaigns for the national civil rights organization and local partners. With an emphasis on using strategic communications as an effective tool for policy change, she managed public awareness efforts that helped move Virginia to restore voting rights for people with felony convictions, pushed Florida lawmakers to abandon legislation that would have restricted voting access for language minorities, and brought North Carolina’s multi-issue “Moral Mondays” movement to national attention.

Gordy previously worked in journalism for nearly a decade, as a White House correspondent and news editor for Essence magazine, as well as senior political correspondent for The Root. Recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists as the 2009 Emerging Journalist of the Year, her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, Slate and NPR. She will start at ProPublica on August 17.

“As a former journalist and a communications professional committed to social impact, I am thrilled to join the ProPublica team,” said Gordy. “I look forward to the charge of helping the newsroom’s important work reach new and larger audiences.”

“We’re delighted Cynthia Gordy is joining ProPublica. We’re happy she will lend her considerable talents to making more people aware of our work, thus heightening the prospects for spurring change,” said Tofel.