M.J. Smith has been named editor of the Southern California Living section. Before coming to The Times, she was managing editor of the Honolulu Advertiser in Hawaii and held a variety of editing and supervisory positions at the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, another Times Mirror paper.
She holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a bachelor's degree from Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Michelle Williams, the section's former editor, has been appointed executive director of the Times Mirror Foundation.