Description:

C. Zawadi Morris is the founder and publisher of BK Reader, the first Black-owned and woman-owned digital daily news site in New York state.

A Chicago native, Ms. Morris attended The University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, where she received her bachelor's in business administration and a minor in Spanish. She received her master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1994. Ms. Morris went on to work on Capitol Hill as a press secretary for New York Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and then for some years in healthcare communications.

In 2000, she formed The Original Media Group, LLC (OMG!), a bilingual media relations agency, MWBE- Certified since 2006 to do business with the City of New York. In 2008, Ms. Morris served as a contributing reporter for The New York Times hyperlocal experiment, "The Local," and then as an editor for AOL's Bed-Stuy Patch.

In 2013, Ms. Morris launched The Brooklyn Reader, a hyperlocal digital daily news platform covering Central and East Brooklyn. Ms. Morris was named a 2015 "Mover and Shaker" in business by NV Magazine; was a part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Business Accelerator Program; and has been featured in Crain's Business NY.

In 2020, Ms. Morris launched Scriibe.org, a non-profit, collaborative news service and digital platform focused on hyperlocal investigative news in underserved communities. Ms. Morris is a member of Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION) and serves on the board of the Center for Black Literature and Studies.

The program will be moderated by Maurice DuBois (BSJ87), Anchor, WCBS-TV New York City.