About Melissa

Melissa Harris-Perry, Ph.D is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University.  There she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center, whose mission is to advance justice through intersectional scholarship. She is also founder and co-director of the innovative bi-partisan program, Wake the Vote.

For more than a decade,  Harris-Perry has contributed to American public life through her distinct combination of scholarly analysis and ordinary wisdom applied to the analysis of race, gender, politics, and power. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and many other print and digital venues. She was among the initial cohort of writers for TheRoot.com and authored highly regarded columns for both Essence and The Nation.  Currently, she is editor-at-large for Elle.com and a contributing editor at The Nation.

Committed to diversifying American journalism and mentoring emerging public voices, Professor Harris-Perry has developed and implemented innovative mentoring efforts including the Elle.com scholars program centering the stories of women and girls of color and BLACK ON CAMPUS, a national student journalism program in partnership with The Nation.

She is the author of the award-winning Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, and Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America.

Along with Dorian Warren, Harris-Perry is principal and co-host of Freedom on Tap, an independent media project combining live events, digital, and audio content.  She hosted the award winning television show “Melissa Harris-Perry” from 2012-2016 on weekend mornings on MSNBC and in 2016, she won the Hillman Prize for broadcast journalism.

Harris-Perry received her B.A. degree in English from Wake Forest University and her Ph.D. degree in political science from Duke University. She serves on several boards and award committees and is a trustee of The Century Foundation. James and Melissa  live in North Carolina. They are married and business partners managing several joint endeavors including Crooked Room Productions, Rosa Acres Homestead, and Perry Political Partnership. They are also raising two extraordinary daughters and tending a delightful flock of chickens, ducks, bunnies, and dogs.