An award-winning Mississippi journalist with nearly 40 years of newswriting experience has returned to The Daily Leader.

Donna Campbell, 58, rejoined the staff this week as a reporter. She will work alongside her husband, Brett, who serves as the newspaper’s editor.

Campbell was raised in the small town of Hurley in Jackson County, nestled between Lucedale in George County and Pascagoula’s beach front. The Campbells moved to Brookhaven in 2016 and Campbell served as managing editor of The Daily Leader before taking an administrative position with the City of Brookhaven for several years.

She received an associate’s degree from Gulf Coast Community College in Gautier, where she was editor of the college’s newspaper. She studied journalism at Southern Miss while reporting news at the Hattiesburg American and the (Pascagoula) Mississippi Press.

She spent several years at The Sun Herald in Gulfport where she covered crime and general interest stories in the lower six Coastal counties, before moving to Newton County in 2013 to marry her fiancé, Brett, a pastor from Chunky.

She served as editor of The Newton County Appeal before moving with her husband to Natchitoches, Louisiana. In Louisiana, Campbell was lifestyle editor of The Natchitoches Times.

The Campbells’ blended family include two sons, three daughters and one granddaughter. They are active at Southway Baptist Church in Brookhaven, where Brett is worship pastor and she is the church secretary.

“It feels wonderful to be back at The Daily Leader,” Campbell said. “I look forward to doing what I truly love — telling the stories about the people of Brookhaven, Lincoln County and Southwest Mississippi.”

Readers can contact Campbell at 601-833-6961 or donna.campbell@dailyleader.com.