White House correspondent to discuss ‘The Presidency in Black and White’

April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, will speak at Yale on Thursday, Feb. 25 as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism.

April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, will speak at Yale on Thursday, Feb. 25 as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism.

Her talk, titled “The Presidency in Black and White,”will take place at 2 p.m. in the School of Management’s Evans Hall, 165 Whitney Ave. Guests can register here

Ryan is the only black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House, a position she has held since the Clinton era. Her extensive experience, along with her work through the American Urban Radio Networks and her “Fabric of America” news blog, affords her a unique insight into the racial sensitivities, issues, and political struggles of the last three presidencies.

Since 1997, she has conducted individual interviews with President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Secretary of State John Kerry, and many others.

Ryan has traveled as a journalist with President Obama on a multi-national tour of sub-Saharan Africa, where she reported on health, infrastructure, and trade, and also to Mexico and Trinidad. She has also accompanied President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush to New Orleans to cover Hurricane Katrina, and has reported on America’s support for democratic elections in Haiti with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

She is a regular roundtable panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” and the “Today Show.” She has contributed breaking stories to ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX.

In July 2011, Ryan was the third African-American ever elected to serve on the the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents Association. She is a member of the National Press Club, and has been named one of POLITICO’s Top 50 in Washington to Watch. In 2012, she was a panelist at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Black Policy Conference. 

Ryan is the author of “The Presidency in Black and White: My Up Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America,” named by NBC News as one of 14 books to read during Black History Month. Her upcoming book, “At Mama’s Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White,” will be published in 2017.

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established by Nelson Poynter, who received his master’s degree in 1927 from Yale. The fellowship brings to campus journalists from a wide variety of media outlets who have made significant contributions to their field. Among recent Poynter fellows are Chris Arnold, Joan Biskupic, and Eliza Griswold.

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