Michele Norris

Michele Norris
Board Member: 2023 – Present

Michele Norris is one of the most trusted voices in journalism. She is a Columnist for The Washington Post Opinion Section, a celebrated author and the host of an upcoming podcast with Higher Ground Productions called Your Mama’s Kitchen. Her voice will be familiar to followers of public radio, where from 2002 to 2012 she was a host of National Public Radio’s afternoon magazine show, All Things Considered.

Norris is also the Founding Director of The Race Card Project™, a Peabody Award Winning narrative archive where half a million people from all around the world have shared their experiences, questions, hopes, dreams, laments, and observations about identity –in just six words–as the starting point for conversations about race and belonging. The author of the The Grace of Silence, her upcoming book, “Tell Me What You Really Think” is scheduled for publication in October of 2023. She has received numerous awards for her work, including Emmy, Peabody and Dupont Awards. In 2022 she received the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.

Before joining NPR in 2002, Michele spent almost ten years as a reporter for ABC News in the Washington Bureau covering politics, policy and the dynamics of social change. She has also worked as a staff writer for The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times. Norris was named “Journalist of the Year” in 2009 by the National Association of Black Journalists.