White House correspondent April Ryan is featured speaker at Niagara University's MLK celebration

By Niagara University

Niagara University will welcome White House correspondent April Ryan as the featured speaker during its annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. The presentation takes place at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, in the Russell J. Salvatore Dining Commons on the Niagara University campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Ryan is a political analyst for CNN and the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for TheGrio. From January 1997 to November 2020, she served in these roles for American Urban Radio Networks. Her unique vantage point as the only Black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House has afforded her unusual insight into the racial sensitivities, issues and attendant political struggles of this nation’s past presidents. 

Ryan is a member of the National Press Club and one of only three African Americans to have served on the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents Association. Her work has been featured in magazines including Essence, Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Elle, and she is the author of “The Presidency in Black and White,” “At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White,” and “Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House.”

In 2019, Ryan became an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., and was recognized with the 2019 Freedom of the Press Award by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She was also nominated in 2021 for the NAACP Image Award for Social Justice Impact.

For more information, contact the Office of Student Affairs at 716-286-8405.