Avid readers of Editor’s Note know that PHOENIX has weathered some significant turnover in recent months. Using this space, I’ve reluctantly bid adieu to beloved longtime magazine colleagues in three consecutive issues at this point. So many tearful farewells. It’s a little like living in a Nicholas Sparks novel.
Well, this time, I’m happy to be writing a missive of introduction, rather than farewell. Please let me introduce Jessica Dunham, a talented and versatile Valley journalist making her debut as managing editor in this September-October issue of PHOENIX. In military parlance, “managing editor” is basically the first officer. Our Mr. Spock, if you will. Which is the coolest way I know how to put it.
But if you read PHOENIX on a regular basis, you’ve already seen Jessica’s name on the masthead – quite a few times, actually. Over the past eight-plus years, she’s been one of our most trusted freelancers, writing engaging profiles (like her interview with Phoenix diocese bishop Peter Bui last spring) and occasional news features, but most often stories about travel and the great Arizona outdoors. That’s her specialty.
It’s fitting that Jessica is making her debut on this particular issue, because it’s a whole mess of travel, starting with 15 Fall Finds (pg. 118), a roundup of hidden travel gems and new discoveries in the Southwest, tailored to autumn; and continuing with Being Yuman (pg. 140), a Jessica-penned spotlight of the maker-economy misfits who make the Arizona border town worth visiting this fall. Friend-of-the-magazine Tom Zoellner, who has written books about Arizona hiking and back-country exploration, also chips in a feature about five Arizona hikes that you absolutely should not do – unless you can handle a little red tape. And horse poop. And unexploded military ordinance. Find that little beauty on page 134.
Because summer is winding down and our energy levels are winding up, we also offer a 2026 election preview (pg. 150); our annual Top Lawyers list (pg. 166); and contributing editor Maddie Rutherford’s Taipei of the Desert feature (pg. 144), in which she adroitly measures the seismic cultural impact of the TSMC microchip plant in the North Valley.
It’s a big, activity-driven issue tailored to my favorite part of the year in the Valley, when the long summer siege finally wearies and wanders off. I’ll take that kind of turnover all day long.
