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AGE: 41 |
Amy DuBois Barnett went down a few paths before discovering her true calling. After graduating from Brown, she moved home to New York City and worked in finance. She didn’t like it, so she enrolled at Parsons for a certificate in fashion merchandising. She then worked as an assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor until she decided to move to Ireland to study writing and literature at University College in Dublin. While there, she applied to the MFA program at Columbia University and was accepted. While earning her degree in creative writing, she also freelanced for a magazine called Fashion Almanac. “I thought I was going to write the Great American Novel,” she says. “But it turns out I’m really great at journalism.” In short order, Barnett skyrocketed to the top of the masthead, where she is today—as the newly installed editor in chief of Ebony magazine. Married with one child, Max, Barnett says she wouldn’t have relocated for just any old editor-in-chief position. “Ebony is my dream job,” she says. “There are very few publishing brands that have this level of resonance in the community—it has political significance, social significance, and a long history of advocacy for its readers.”
Photograph: Maria Ponce