Celebrity | Miss America Another Shake-Up at Miss America Gretchen Carlson stepping down as board chairwoman By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted Jun 5, 2019 9:55 AM CDT Copied Gretchen Carlson attends Variety's Power of Women: New York on April 5, 2019. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) Pageant officials got their wish: Gretchen Carlson is stepping down as board chairwoman of the Miss America Organization after more than a year, reports the AP. The former Fox News host and former Miss America says in a statement Wednesday that she has helped make the organization more relevant. She'll be replaced by Shantel Krebs, a former South Dakota secretary of state. Attorney Brenda Keith will be vice chair. Although she'll no longer be a board member, Carlson will serve as an adviser to the board. Carlson and CEO Regina Hopper took over leadership of the organization following an email scandal in which top male leadership denigrated former Miss Americas. But their own leadership of the organization was criticized by many state organizations. Indeed, all but five state pageant organizations had called on Carlson and Hopper to resign as of September. (Then came the purge.) Read These Next The country of Eswatini is about to be on your radar. Union says 17 immigration court judges have been fired since Friday. 500 tons of emergency food for kids abroad: Headed for the trash. Trump has dubbed it the 'Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.' Report an error