The Cadet welcomes high profile Board Members and Mentors

The Cadet Foundation as the joint cadet and alumni non-profit formed to formalize ownership and publication of The Cadet newspaper as one of the oldest independent college newspapers in the United States welcomes two prestigious Directors at Large and mentors for The Cadet staff. Mr. Matt Paxton is president of The News-Gazette Corp., of Lexington, Va., which publishes The News-Gazette, a newspaper, its companion website, TheNews-Gazette.com and several print and web niche publications. He grew up in a newspaper family and represents the fourth generation of his family to publish the paper. Paxton attended Lexington city schools, and received a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia in 1976. After four years in banking, he returned to the family business in 1980, where he started in advertising sales. After stints as advertising manager and business manager, he became publisher in 1994 when he bought the business from his father. Paxton still sells to a select list of key customers of the paper and has customer assignments for most of the niche publications. He writes a monthly column and occasional editorials and stories. Paxton is a past president of the Virginia Press Association, serving on its board from 1989 to 1999, again from 2010 to 2016 and in 2019-2020. He is also a past president of the National Newspaper Association. He served on the NNA board from 1999 to 2005, and again from 2013 to 2018. He is currently NNA Government Affairs and Postal Committee chair, and represents NNA on the USPS Mailer's Technical Advisory Committee. He and his wife Lynne live in Fairfield, VA. The News-Gazette Corporation is both an advertising partner with The Cadet and the exclusive print partner for the newspaper. Both Mr. Paxton and the News-Gazette are strong supporters of The Cadet going back to almost the origins of both publications. "The return of The VMI Cadet," writes Paxton, "is a piece of good news for the Institute and the Community." "VMI extols the virtue of the citizen-soldier", continues Paxton. "Exercising the First Amendment through the press function is an integral part of American citizenship, with the rights and responsibilities that entails. My hope is The Cadet will not only instruct the staff in the craft of journalism but be a positive force in the life of the Corps of Cadets." Paxton and his staff also perform the critical mentor roles in advising The Cadet staff on business management, advertising editorial writing, and other aspects of operating The Cadet. Mr. Tod Robberson brings The Cadet another Director-at-Large and mentor with experience and credentials few, if any, college newspapers can match. Mr. Robberson has been the editorial page editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since early 2016. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose experience covering international and military affairs spans nearly four decades. He has been a staff writer and editor for numerous news media outlets, including the Reuters news agency, The Washington Post and The Dallas Morning News and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas Tech University and a master's degree in Arab Studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Robberson's professional work has taken him throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and western Asia. His bureau postings as a staff foreign correspondent have included Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Cyprus, El Salvador, Mexico, Colombia, Panama and London. He has covered Lebanon's civil war, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iran-Iraq war, the Salvadoran and Colombian civil wars, the 1991 and 2003 U.S. wars with Iraq, and, starting in 2001, the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Domestically, his editorial writing on the social and economic disparities between northern and southern Dallas won him the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Robberson's current position leading the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch places him daily in the public spotlight. His editorials and columns appear not only in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch but in newspapers and on websites around the country, engaging daily audiences in the hundreds of thousands. Robberson also is an avid sailor and tennis player. His wife, Catherine L. Hopkins, is a director and high school theater teacher. Their daughter, Fiona, is an actor in New York who recently was awarded a master's degree in fine arts at The Juilliard School. Mr. Robberson is a strong supporter of all The Cadet stands for and its guiding principles. "Student journalism is where it all started with me," says Robberson. "It grounded me in the fundamentals of truth, discipline, accuracy, balance and hard work -- very hard work. Our job is to be bold and hold authorities (and everyone else, including ourselves) accountable. I believe those fundamentals are absolutely in line with the values and traditions of VMI." The Cadet was independently founded by Virginia Military Institute cadets as a magazine as early as 1871 and transitioned to newspaper format as early as 1907. The formal incorporation as The Cadet Foundation, a Virginia non-profit corporation with cadets serving as voting members of its Board of Directors, formalizes the legal structure as publisher of The Cadet and creates the firm foundation ensuring its continuance as the cadet-run, alumni supported independent voice of the Corps of Cadets and Alumni. Future articles will highlight the remaining cadet and alumni members of the Board.