Tonyaa Weathersbee

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT TONYAA WEATHERSBEE

Tonyaa Weathersbee is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Before that, she was an award-winning metro columnist for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, TN. And before that she was a multiple award-winning opinion columnist for The Florida Times-Union, the daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Fla. Tonyaa also wrote a weekly opinion for Black America Web, a news site operated by Reach Media and radio personality Tom Joyner, from 2003 to 2013, and has written commentary for The Root, The Undefeated, CNN and The Marshall Project. Tonyaa has also written stories for The Bitter Southerner and Children & Nature News. Tonyaa earned a master\'s degree in mass communication with a concentration in international/intercultural communications from the University of Florida in 2016, as well as a graduate certificate in Latin American Studies - accomplishments which augment her extensive experience as an international journalist. From 2002 to 2011, she served as managing editor for The Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies, a non-profit institute founded by USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham, and has led teams of journalists to Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Panama, Mexico and Grenada to do reporting projects. She has also traveled to Ecuador, Venezuela, Jordan, Barbados and Turkey to do journalistic work. Tonyaa specializes in Cuban and Afro-Latin American history and culture, and has traveled and made speeches on that topic, as well as others relating to the issues she explores in her columns. Tonyaa has also garnered a number of awards and honors. She was also the first African-American appointed to The Florida Times-Union\'s Editorial Board.