**This is a past event**
The Gwen Ifill School of Media, Humanities and Social Sciences presents its 2023 Ifill Forum, "Leadership and Democracy: The Enduring Power of Black Women." This year's event features legendary White House Correspondent April Ryan, who will be honored with the Gwen Ifill Next Generation Award — presented to an individual who embodies Gwen Ifill's commitment to professional excellence, mentoring, and the public good.
April Ryan will engage in a moderated discussion with members of the Simmons community, followed by audience Q&A. Following the event, Ifill School will host Ms. Ryan for a book signing. Copies of her book, Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem, will be sold at the event.
This event is free and open to the public. Masks are strongly encouraged. For the book signing portion of the event, masks are required.
Please email [email protected] with any questions.
The Keynote Speaker: April Ryan
White House Correspondent April Ryan has a unique vantage point as the only black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House — a position she has held since the Clinton era. Her position as a White House Correspondent has afforded her unusual insight into the racial sensitivities, issues, and attendant political struggles of our nation's past presidents.
April can be seen on CNN. She is also the Washington D.C Bureau Chief on TheGrio. She has been featured in Essence, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Elle magazines — to name a few.
April Ryan has served on the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents Association, one of only three African Americans in the Association's over 100-year history to serve on that board. She is also an esteemed member of the National Press Club. In 2015, Ms. Ryan was nominated for an NAACP Image Award (Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author) for her first book. In 2016, the National Council of Negro Women gave her their Mary McCloud Bethune Trailblazer Award.
In 2019, April Ryan became an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and was recognized as the 2019 Freedom of the Press Award Winner by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. April was nominated in 2021 with the NAACP Image Award for Social Justice Impact.
April Ryan is a Baltimore native and a proud Morgan State University graduate, and she gives back to this community by serving as a mentor to aspiring student journalists and assisting with developing "up and coming" broadcasters. April considers her greatest life's work raising her two daughters, Ryan and Grace — who are phenomenal young women.
April Ryan is the author of the award-winning book, The Presidency in Black and White, where she gives readers a personal look at race relations in contemporary American politics, as seen from her own beat in the White House. Her next book, At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White (2016), also looks at race relations through the lessons and wisdom that mothers have given their children. Her third book, Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House (2018), portrays "the unrelenting stress of being one of the few Black reporters on the White House beat" (Publishers Weekly). Her most recent book, Black Women will Save the World, is a celebration of Black women's resilience, powerful impact on our democratic institutions, and unheralded strength.
The Moderator: Rehema Ellis
Rehema Ellis is NBC News’ Chief Education Correspondent. Her reports appear across all of NBC News and MSNBC’s platforms, including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, TODAY, NBCNews.com and NBC News NOW.
Since joining NBC News in 1994, Ellis has reported on a wide-range of stories, including the attacks on the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, the death of Michael Jackson and the Haiti earthquake.
Ellis has distinguished herself as a lead correspondent and received numerous awards including local and national Emmys, Edward R. Murrow Awards, Associated Press awards and awards from the National Association of Black Journalists.
She was part of the NBC News Emmy award-winning coverage of the plane crash in the Hudson River and received an Emmy for her reporting on the 2008 Presidential Election of Barack Obama. She is also a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Journalism.
Ellis began her broadcast career at KDKA Radio and TV in Pittsburgh. Later, she worked in Boston at WHDH-TV as a reporter and weekend anchor.
Born in North Carolina, and raised in Boston, she graduated from Simmons College in Boston and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York. Ellis currently lives in New York City with her son.
She is on Twitter @RehemaEllis.