Former Anniston Star managing editor Geni Certain has returned to Consolidated Publishing as managing editor for The Daily Home.

Certain began work Monday after spending three years in retirement, dividing her time between her home in Munford and Patzcuaro, Mexico.

Certain succeeds Graham Hadley, who along with publisher Carol Pappas, resigned from the newspaper earlier this month.

Certain, 52, is a native of Madison County, where she graduated from New Hope High School in 1975. She is a 1979 graduate of The University of Alabama and received her master’s degree from Jacksonville State University in history in 2008.

She initially came to The Anniston Star, a sister paper to The Daily Home, in 1993, having worked for newspapers and magazines in Biloxi, Miss.; Lakeland, Fla.; Roswell and Marietta, Ga.; and Memphis, Tenn.

She held several editing jobs at The Star before being named managing editor in 1998. She became the director of Consolidated Publishing’s newly created Online Department in 2000, responsible for building and maintaining the company’s Web sites. In 2005, the department was expanded to include creating new products both online and in print and was renamed the New Media Department. Among the new products that emerged from the expansion was the quarterly magazine Longleaf Style, for which Certain served as editor.

She also taught Web site construction and management for the journalism department at Jacksonville State University for several years and wrote a biography of former U.S. Rep. Glen Browder of Jacksonville. The book is scheduled for publication later this year by NewSouth Books of Montgomery.

Certain said she is excited to return to Consolidated Publishing and join The Daily Home, where “community journalism is both preached and practiced.”

“People ask me all the time if and how newspapers will survive. I think it’s papers like The Daily Home that will.”

“A good newspaper is a living organism, a contributing member of the community.” Certain said. “We’re not just a bunch of people observing and writing from the outside. We have to be part of the community, concerned with what is happening to the people in the towns. We have a role in righting what’s wrong, and also in recognizing what’s right.”

Brandt Ayers, Consolidated Publishing chairman of the board and publisher for The Anniston Star, said Certain’s appointment as managing editor for The Daily Home provided a “double bonus” for the newspaper.

“As a longtime resident of the county, she not only knows the region’s people and cities, but also has deep and impressive credentials as a newspaper and magazine editor. Plus, she’s bright and amiable company,” Ayers said.

Pappas said she and Certain “came up through the ranks together at Consolidated, and we have shared the same news philosophy throughout those years — putting the reader first.

“I think she will be a good fit for our communities and I wish her the best,” Pappas said.

“I have worked with Geni for a number of years when she was at The Anniston Star and have a great respect for capabilities as a professional journalist,” Hadley said. “It is comforting to know that someone of her caliber will be stepping into the role I have had here at The Daily Home, and I have every confidence that she will work with the staff and community to continue the tradition of covering local news and turning out the quality products our readers have come to expect. I wish her the best of luck in her new job as managing editor at The Daily Home.”

Certain and her husband, Larry Wood, live in Munford. He retired in 2002 as chief psychologist for the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega after working in the position since 1993 when he was reassigned from Memphis. They have a daughter, Johanna Wood, who is a freelance graphic designer who lives in Gulf Shores.

In addition to her newspaper interests, Certain enjoys gardening and photography, especially cultivating flowers that attract butterflies and photographing them.