William Hatfield has been the editor of the Tallahassee Democrat for almost a decade. In that time, he secured the USA TODAY NETWORK’s top annual leadership award and worked alongside the capital city news operation’s journalists to achieve four consecutive Gold Medals, the top journalism award in the state. He has been a Floridian for 25 years and was the editor of the Northwest Florida Daily News, Destin Log and Walton Sun. An Illinois native, he graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and got his master’s degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield.