The former editor of the Chicago Tribune has been named the new curator for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, according to the Associated Press.

Ann Marie Lipinski, a Nieman Fellow in 1990, Pulitzer Prize winner and current senior lecturer and vice president for civic engagement at the University of Chicago, will replace curator Bob Giles, who is retiring.

“For me as a Nieman fellow, the program was transformative, and my experience there was extraordinary,’’ Lipinski said as quoted by the Boston Globe. “I saw the impact it had on other journalists either in my class or other editors and reporters whose fellowship I supported, and to help guide that process is very exciting and humbling.’’

Lipinski will be the first woman to head the Nieman Foundation since its founding in 1938, according to a statement from the Nieman Foundation.

“I am thrilled with the outcome of this search,” Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman said in the statement. “Ann Marie recognizes the urgency surrounding the field of journalism and its future, and I am excited for the vision and innovation she will bring to one of Harvard’s most treasured institutions.”

The Nieman Foundation sponsors fellowships for mid-career journalists. Each year, 12 U.S. journalists and 12 international journalists participate in the year-long fellowship at Harvard.

Besides Lipinski, former Nieman fellows include award-winning Colombian television journalist Hollman Morris, and Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas founder Rosental Calmon Alves.