Micheline Maynard has been named editor for the "Changing Gears: Remaking the Manufacturing Belt" Upper Midwest Local Journalism Center.

The Center is a new editorial collaboration funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to report on a major developing story-- the transformation of the Upper Midwest's industrial-based economy to a post-manufacturing one. Maynard will be based in Chicago and lead a team of three reporters and a new media producer in the production of long-form radio reports, special programs for radio and television and Web content. The Center's radio reports are expected to air on WBEZ-FM (91.5) in Chicago.

Maynard was most recently a senior business correspondent for the New York Times. She joined the Times staff in 2004, and in 2005 was named bureau chief in Detroit, where she directed the Times' coverage of the auto industry.