The Los Angeles Times on Thursday announced that Kimi Yoshino has been named the newspaper’s business editor.

Yoshino, who has been the Metro section’s morning assigning editor, succeeds Marla Dickerson, who leaves for the Wall Street Journal.

Times Editor Davan Maharaj and Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin credited Yoshino with helping guide the paper’s reporting on the Bell corruption scandal, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service. Last year, she coordinated a well-received series about the dangers of construction on or near seismic faults in Los Angeles.

Yoshini, who grew up in Modesto, has been with Times since 2000, after stints at the Fresno Bee and Stockton Record. She covered Orange County as a Times reporter and also did two rotations at the paper’s Baghdad bureau.

“Kimi brings many valuable qualities to this important job: a passion for news, a commitment to digital journalism, a background in business reporting and a collaborative spirit,” Maharaj and Duvoisin said.