The Progressive South
We are a nonprofit media platform dedicated to providing news and views from a progressive perspective across the Southern United States. We want to amplify people and organizations doing good work on behalf of the communities and places they care about. We are pro-civil rights, pro-democracy, pro-choice and pro-South. There is so much to love, honor and protect here. We can make it better, together. Our history shapes us, but it doesn’t limit us.
PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jesse Fox Mayshark
Jesse was born on the West Coast, grew up on the East Coast, and has spent most of his adult years in Knoxville, Tennessee. He first moved south in 1994, shortly after graduating from Penn State University with a degree in journalism.
He has worked for publications large and small, including as a copy editor for The New York Times News Service; a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel; and as editor of Metro Pulse, the late, lamented alternative weekly that served Knoxville for more than 20 years. He left journalism for a bit, spending seven years working for the City of Knoxville, where he served as senior director of communications and government relations for former Mayor Madeline Rogero — the first woman elected to the office.
In 2018, he co-founded Compass, an independent online news outlet in Knoxville focused on local and state government and politics. While still a minority partner in Compass, he stepped back from editorial duties there in 2025 to launch The Progressive South.
He is also the author of Post-Pop Cinema: the Search for Meaning in New American Film (2007) and co-author of The Scopes Trial: a Photographic History (2000). He lives on a quiet block in North Knoxville with his wife, two children and a very fine cat.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jim Samples (Chair)
Jim Samples is a seasoned media executive and international business leader with a distinguished career spanning broadcast, digital, and print media across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. He served as President of International at Scripps Networks Interactive, where he oversaw a global media operation spanning 175 countries. Before leading the international networks, Samples was President of Scripps’ flagship network, HGTV. He also held top executive roles at Turner Broadcasting, including President of Cartoon Network Worldwide, where he launched groundbreaking franchises like Adult Swim. He brings deep expertise in global strategy, content production, and cross-cultural leadership.
Julie Gautreau
Julie Gautreau is a lawyer, public servant and native Tennessean. For thirty years she was an assistant public defender with the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office, one of the nation’s first public defender agencies to adopt a holistic indigent defense model for client representation. For ten years she taught trial practice at the University of Tennessee College of Law. Throughout her professional life she has engaged with various civic and community-based organizations to advocate on behalf of marginalized people, in particular undocumented immigrants and incarcerated people. She currently serves as an election commissioner for Knox County, Tennessee.
Alfred Soto
Alfred Soto is an associate teaching professor in the School of Communication and a student media advisor at Florida International University in Miami. He has written for a number of publications, including The Miami Herald, Pitchfork, Billboard, Stereogum, and SPIN. He will serve as secretary for the FIU chapter of United Faculty of Florida.
CONTACT
Jesse Fox Mayshark: [email protected]
Phone: (865) 214-7764
Address:
1032 Ashwood Pl.
Knoxville, TN 37917