After nearly four years of covering community, culture and education in central Virginia, Tamica Jean-Charles is leaving Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Jean-Charles joined Charlottesville Tomorrow in September 2021 after working as a social justice watchdog reporter at The Progress-Index in Petersburg. In assuming her new role, she was eager to learn more about the city’s people, places and everything in between.
Some reporting highlights for Jean-Charles include covering the school renaming process at Charlottesville City Schools. Through her consistent reporting on the topic, she crafted thoughtful and profound stories, such as a profile of a namesake of Burnley-Moran Elementary School, and what changing the name of a school means to different people in the community.
Jean-Charles closely followed the shutdown of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency’s Head Start programs, and how it impacted the families and workers who relied on it. While the series was one of Jean-Charles’ more challenging assignments, it gave her space to test her reporting abilities and prove herself as a strong reporter.
Toward the end of 2023, Jean-Charles began covering other kinds of community events. She quickly learned about compelling area artists, such as Colleen Rosenberry, who created an entire series of paintings to grieve the death of her son, and the artists behind “Looking Back, Seeing Now,” an art exhibit to remember the ancestors of Black people in Fluvanna County through embracing the county’s current residents.
Through her time with Charlottesville Tomorrow, Jean-Charles found ways to explore the people who distinguish Charlottesville from other cities. In 2022, she met descendants of enslaved laborers buried at Pen Park, and learned more about how the community came together to properly memorialize them. That story, Jean-Charles says, is among her favorite reports.
Over the years, Jean-Charles worked with editors Angilee Shah and Jessie Higgins and, more recently, with Managing Editor Akash Sinha and me, Charlottesville Tomorrow’s first Editor-at-Large.
“I truly feel like a stronger journalist after working with all my editors,” said Jean-Charles. “I always wanted to work with people who were able to spend a little more time with me on my stories so I can better understand the reporting process, and my editors here did just that.”
Jean-Charles also says she gained a “wealth of knowledge” from fellow reporters Erin O’Hare, Anastasiia Carrier and former reporter Charlotte Rene Woods, now at the Virginia Mercury. She also built strong professional relationships with many of Charlottesville Tomorrow’s contributors and collaborators.
“We’re really excited for Tamica, and her promising future,” said CEO and Editor-in-Chief Angilee Shah. “We know how demanding and rewarding being a journalist in local news can be, but building a healthy newsroom culture is core to our mission. I’m grateful to Tamica for helping us do that.”
As Charlottesville Tomorrow grows its team, we are seeking new reporters to join the newsroom. If you’re interested, let us know.
Outside of her daily assignments for Charlottesville Tomorrow, Jean-Charles discovered the joy of local connections and friendships. In 2022, she founded the social group Brown Shuga, a space for queer women of color in the region.
As Jean-Charles continues her journey in journalism — and other endeavors in between — she will remain in Charlottesville and looks forward to developing her own media projects while freelancing for news outlets in and out of Virginia.
“It’s truly a bittersweet moment to be leaving because I’ve gained so much from being here,” said Jean-Charles. “But all the skills I’ve learned have given me the confidence to move forward.”
Interested in following Jean-Charles on her journey after Charlottesville Tomorrow? Check her out on Instagram and Bluesky @cafetamica.
