Liz Garrigan has been named the new editor of Washington City Paper, Publisher Eric Norwood announced today.

Garrigan, 47, comes to City Paper from her role as senior editor for Paris-based Worldcrunch, an international news site that works with foreign-language newspapers to deliver global news to English-language readers. She will be the first woman to become editor in the paper’s history and will begin in July.

“I’ve been an admirer of the City Paper and the journalistic royalty it has nurtured for two decades, and have been enthralled by D.C. for almost as long,” Garrigan says. “It has been a privilege to work in international journalism and Paris has been a great adventure for over five years, but deeply sourced alt-weekly journalism is my passion and where I spent 13 years of my career. I’m looking forward to returning to it and working with the accomplished staff to continue telling the District’s stories as only the City Paper can.”

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Garrigan is a longtime political writer and former editor of the Nashville Scene, and also served as interim executive editor for SouthComm publications in Nashville.

“I can speak from firsthand experience about Liz’s journalistic talent and leadership skills, having personally worked alongside her as she led an award-winning newspaper as both news editor and editor-in-chief during both our previous tenures at the Nashville Scene,” Norwood says. “I have closely followed her career, and her body of work outside the alt-weekly realm serves to enhance her capacity to provide the tenacious eyes and ears required inside a locally focused publication in a unique environment like D.C.’s. The readers of Washington City Paper and the residents of the District will be well served with her at our helm.”

She succeeds Steve Cavendish, who will become the Scene’s editor.