Tonyaa J. Weathersbee...

Is a multiple award-winning newspaper columnist, podcaster, mass communication lecturer and intercultural communication scholar whose career has spanned three decades. Tonyaa's awards include the Florida Society of News Editors' Award, the National Association of Black Journalists' Salute to Excellence Award, the Best of Gannett Award and numerous others. The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications also selected her as a 2020 inductee into its Hall of Fame.

Tonyaa has appeared on news shows ranging from NBC's Nightline to BET Tonight, and her columns, which have appeared on national websites such as Black America Web, The Root and The Undefeated, generally explore the impact of social and economic isolation on communities of color and the nation's future.

Her international work has largely focused on Cuba, a nation that she has studied as a template for examining racial and social issues in the U.S.. She was also selected as a presenter at the 2019 Latin American Studies Association Congress for her academic research on rural Latinos.

Now based at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis and as part of the USA Today Network, Tonyaa is continuing to use her platform as metro columnist, podcaster and international journalist and researcher to continue to amplify the voices of marginalized people and structural disparities and injustices.