May 4 Town Hall Panelists

Wayne Dawkins is associate editor of the Daily Press in Newport News, Va. He has worked at The Daily Argus in New York, the Courier-Post in New Jersey and the Post-Tribune in Indiana. He teaches a Black Press history course at Virginia Union University. From 1977-1979, Dawkins worked for Trans Urban News Service, which later became the City Sun.

Dawkins has been a member of NABJ since 1981. From 1984-1989, he was Region 2 director. He is founding president of the New Jersey chapter. Dawkins served many years as chairman of NABJ historical records. He is a contributing writer to the NABJ Journal. He is a founding member (1992) of the William Monroe Trotter Group. He is author of "Black Journalists: The NABJ Story." Since July 1980, Dawkins has been editor of the monthly Black Alumni Network newsletter.

 

Phyllis Garland is a professor of journalism at Columbia University, where she has taught for 28 years. She started her career in 1959 as a reporter and editor for The Pittsburgh Courier, where she covered the 1963 March on Washington and issues related to labor, housing and education.

In 1965, she joined Ebony magazine, covering the civil rights movement, urban youth gangs, black economic development and black culture. She later served as the New York bureau chief for Johnson Publications. A music critic, she is author of the book "The Sound of Soul" and was a contributing editor for Stereo Review for 20 years.

She has been a Distinguished Scholar of the United Negro College Fund, and is a Lifetime Achievement honoree of the New York Association of Black Journalists.

 

Karen E. Quinones Miller is a former reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Miller, a member of the Philadelphia Black Writers Group, wrote her first book, "Satin Doll," in only two months in early 1999. After unsuccessfully trying to find a publisher for the novel, she self-published it in December 1999, selling more than 24,000 copies in eight months.

The publishing rights to "Satin Doll" were sold at a publishing auction, and Simon and Schuster acquired the rights. The novel was re-released in July. Her new book, "I'm Telling," will be in bookstores in August.

 

 

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