Wanda Lloyd, journalist, professor, author and TEDx presenter, is a speaker on topics of journalism, media diversity and Black history. She was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame in 2019. Lloyd is author of COMING FULL CIRCLE: From Jim Crow to Journalism. The memoir is a self-reflective exploration of the author’s life growing up in the Deep South and becoming a trailblazing newspaper editor. The foreword was written by novelist Tina McElroy Ansa, the best-selling author of five novels, including Baby of the Family and Ugly Ways.

 

COMING FULL CIRCLE was listed by bookauthority.org as one of the “25 Best Journalism Books to Read in 2020.” Kirkus Reviews calls the memoir “Inspiring reading for aspiring journalists and students of civil rights.” Lloyd released two books in 2020. She is co-editor (with Ansa, her Spelman College freshman-year roommate) of MEETING AT THE TABLE: African-American Women Write on Race, Culture and Community, an anthology of essays from diverse perspectives. Lloyd and Ansa also co-host a podcast, “2 Old Chicks Who Know a Lot of Sh*t! TM,” on YouTube and popular podcast platforms

Lloyd served more than eight years as executive editor of the Montgomery (AL) Advertiser. In this role, she was responsible for all news content for the daily newspaper, websites and several weekly newspapers. She is a former associate professor/chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University. She has also been a columnist for the Savannah Morning News/savannahnow.com. Lloyd was the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, based on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. The Institute offered journalism training to people of color coming from careers outside of journalism and who were interested in a mid-career shift into journalism. In Nashville, she was also co-host of “Behind the Headlines,” a weekly radio news analysis show on WFSK-FM, the Fisk University station.

Lloyd served as a senior editor at USA TODAY, where she served earlier as a deputy managing editor and managing editor. She was managing editor at The Greenville (S.C.) News, and she was an editor at The Washington Post, the Providence Evening Bulletin, the Miami Herald, and the Atlanta Journal. She has been a four-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize.

She is a former director of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE), where she chaired the organization’s committees on Diversity, Human Resources and Nominations, and she was co-editor of the “ASNE Bulletin” (later “The American Editor”). She was a co-founder and chair of the National Association of Minority Media Executives (NAMME), and she served as a member of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Board of Directors. She directed the landmark NABJ study Muted Voices: Frustration and Fear in the Newsroom, a survey of black journalists and newsroom managers.

Lloyd is an Ambassador member of the AARP Georgia Executive Council, and she has been a member of the Georgia Writers Association Board of Directors. She is currently an advisory board member of The Learning Center/Senior Citizens, Inc., in Savannah, where she also serves as a lecturer and discussion moderator. In 2022 she was a TEDxSavannah speaker on the topic “Words Matter.” Lloyd is a graduate of the Scripps Howard Academic Leadership Academy at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Communications, and she is also a graduate of Leadership Savannah, Leadership Montgomery, Alabama, and Leadership Greenville, South Carolina.

Lloyd has been honored nationally for career achievement, including: The Ida B. Wells Award for media diversity, the Robert G. McGruder Award for media diversity, Columbia University Career Achievement Award, and Distinguished Alumna of National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO). She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Spelman College in Atlanta. In 2016 Spelman honored her with the Doctor of Humane Letters and she also holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from Briarwood College in Southington, Connecticut. She completed a fellowship at the Management Training Center at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business Management.

Lloyd is a Diamond Life member of the Savannah Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and she is a member of the Savannah (GA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. She is also a member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.