Lakeside High Grad, Award-Winning Journalist Dead at 33

Maya Jackson Randall, a Lakeside High School graduate and a national award-winning journalist, died last week. She was 33.

After graduating from Howard University in Washington, she worked for several publications before The Wall Street Journal hired her at just 25 to cover the energy industry, according to Randall's obituary the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

From the story:

During her short career, Randall covered the nation’s financial crisis. She traveled with former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to London, Beijing and Abu Dhabi, and wrote a series of articles that forced the U.S. Treasury to disclose how funds for the Troubled Asset Relief Program were being spent.

“She had this natural poise and calmness to her,” [said Gary Fields, a national reporter at The Wall Street Journal]. “When she walked in (as an intern), I realized, ‘She is one of the best reporters in this room and she’s 21.’ She had an ability to do anything as a reporter. They don’t come along like her.”

She was readying to cover the White House before she was diagnosed with cancer in 2009.

Read the full AJC story for more information about Randall.