Company officials announced Thursday that Tracy Agnew will take over as editor at the Suffolk News-Herald on Dec. 1.

Agnew will replace Editor Res Spears, who will be leaving the paper Dec. 8 to focus on seminary studies and spend a few months in Haiti in support of a mission organization.

The two will continue to work closely during the next few weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

“I am very pleased that Tracy has been chosen to take this position,” said Spears, who joined the Suffolk News-Herald staff in 2008. “Nobody in our newsroom works harder than she does, and I’ve enjoyed watching her grow and improve as a journalist for the past nine years. We would not be the successful community daily newspaper we are without her hard work.”

Agnew started working at the News-Herald in 2006. She is a Newport News native and a 2006 graduate of Longwood University with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature. She earned a Master of Arts in professional writing from Old Dominion University in 2007.

She and her husband, Troy Cooper — a North Carolina native who is a former designer for the News-Herald and the current designer for the magazines published by Suffolk Publications — currently live in Ocean View, but they plan to move to Suffolk soon.

“Tracy Agnew is a rare talent we are lucky to have,” Suffolk News-Herald Publisher John Carr said Thursday. “If you are a regular reader of the Suffolk News-Herald, you know Tracy’s work well. She knows Suffolk inside and out, and most of Suffolk knows her, as well.

“Tracy worked alongside Res for years as our news editor and is more than prepared to take the reins,” he added. “We could not realistically hope to find a better candidate than Tracy to fill Res’ shoes.”

Spears will be spending the first half of 2018 volunteering in Montrouis, Haiti, with Supply and Multiply, a ministry for which he is a founding board member. Spears has traveled there on several short-term trips and said he looks forward to the opportunity to spend a longer span of time with the organization’s Haitian staff and the people they serve.

Supply and Multiply works to care for elderly residents of that community, providing employment for cooks, guards, translators, teachers and others in the process.

Spears began pursuing a Master of Arts in Christian Leadership through Dallas Theological Seminary in August and will continue that work online from Haiti before returning to Suffolk in the summer.

He started working for community newspapers as a part-time reporter for The Tidewater News in Franklin in 1986. During his newspaper career, he has served as a reporter, editor, general manager and regional general manager at various newspapers around Southside and Central Virginia.

“Res Spears has decades of experience and exceptionally high standards for himself and his staff,” Carr said. “He is also a Suffolk native who loves his community and takes pride in the credibility he has helped build at the Suffolk News-Herald. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with him.”