'Race Card Project' Founder to Speak at Trinity

Michele Norris, an award-winning journalist who has reported extensively on race relations, will speak about "The Race Card Project" at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7 in Laurie Auditorium on the Trinity University campus. The event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.

In 2002, Norris began as co-host of National Public Radio's newsmagazine All Things Considered, public radio's longest-running national program, with Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. During a sabbatical from that program during the 2012 presidential campaign, Norris traveled the country and developed two successful initiatives: The Race Card Project, which captures people's views on race in six-word sentences, and NPR's Backseat Book Club for "junior brainiacs."

In September 2010, Norris released her first book, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir, which focuses on how America talks about race in the wake of Barack Obama's presidential election, and explores her own family's racial legacy. It has been called one of the best books of 2010 by The Christian Science Monitor. Using her memoir as a catalyst for conversation, Norris has addressed thousands of students through campus "One Book" programs, encouraging discussions about the history of race relations in the U.S.

Before working at NPR, Norris was a correspondent for ABC News from 1993-2002. As a contributing correspondent for the "Closer Look" segments on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Norris reported extensively on education, inner city issues, the nation's drug problem, and poverty. Norris has also reported for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times.

Norris has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2010 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for she and co-host Steve Inskeep's program, "The York Project: Race and the 2008 Vote;" the 2009 Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists; and the National Association of Black Journalists' 2006 Salute to Excellence Award, for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, she was honored with Ebony Magazine's eighth Annual Outstanding Women in Marketing & Communications Award, and in 2009 was named one of Essence Magazine's "25 Most Influential Black Americans." Norris also earned both an Emmy Award and Peabody Award for her contribution to ABC News' coverage of 9/11.

Norris attended the University of Wisconsin, where she majored in electrical engineering, and graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she studied journalism.