Michele Norris


Michele L. Norris is an American journalist, currently working as an opinion columnist with The Washington Post.
From 2002 until 2011, she was co-host of the National Public Radio evening news program All Things Considered. Norris was the first African-American female host for National Public Radio.
Norris is also a member of the Peabody Awards board of directors, which is presented by the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Early life

Norris was born in Minnesota, to Betty and Belvin Norris Jr.; Belvin served in the Navy in World War II. Michele attended Washburn High School in Minneapolis, and went on to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she first studied electrical engineering, but then transferred to the University of Minnesota where she majored in journalism and mass communications.

Career

At the University of Minnesota, Norris wrote for the Minnesota Daily, and then became a reporter for WCCO-TV.
Norris wrote for The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. In 1990, while at The Washington Post, Norris received the Livingston Award for articles she wrote about the life of a six-year-old boy who lived with a crack-addicted mother in a crack house.
From 1993 to 2002, Norris was a news correspondent for ABC News, winning an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for coverage of the September 11 attacks.

NPR

Norris joined the National Public Radio evening news program All Things Considered on December 9, 2002, becoming the first African-American female host for NPR. In 2015, Fortune described Norris as "one of biggest stars."
Norris announced on October 24, 2011, that she would temporarily step down from her All Things Considered hosting duties and refrain from involvement in any NPR political coverage during the 2012 election year due to her husband's appointment to the Barack Obama 2012 presidential re-election campaign. Audie Cornish replaced Norris. On January 3, 2013, NPR announced that Norris would be returning to the organization in a new role as host and special correspondent, and that Audie Cornish would remain as host of All Things Considered.

The Race Card Project

The Race Card Project was a project Norris began in 2010 in collaboration with NPR, inviting people to submit comments on their experience of race in the United States in six words. Norris and collaborators won a 2014 Peabody Award for the project.
In December 2015, Norris left NPR to focus on the Race Card Project. In July 2020, Simon & Schuster announced a book deal for the project.

''The Grace of Silence''

Norris is also the author of The Grace of Silence, a memoir and reported non-fiction book that started as an extension of an NPR series about race relations in the United States called the Race Card Project.

Awards

Norris lives in the District of Columbia with her husband, Broderick D. Johnson, and her daughter, son, and stepson.