ABOUT

Rochelle Riley, who always works with two phones, spent more than two decades writing a successful  newspaper column with her finger on the pulse of the communities she covered.  She has been a leading voice on race, education and responsible government and a crusader for children since 1996.  In 2019, she took a buy-out from her newspaper to help editors avoid laying off colleagues. So now, she’s focusing her attention on her next life. And she can help you do it, too.  Check back for the launch of her podcast LIVING YOUR NEXT LIFE ™  — which debuts in December. There, she’ll offer advice on new beginnings as well as give you glimpses into the lives of others who changed direction and are living their next lives. She is now Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit and author of “The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery” (Wayne State University Press, 2018). and “That They Lived: Twenty-One African Americans Who Changed the World,” a collection of inspirational, biographical essays for young readers (Wayne State University Press, 2020).  She also is a co-founder of Letters to Black Girls, a project that grew from a friend’s single keynote presentation to a national mission to pass words of encouragement from black women to black girls.  Rochelle, an avid traveler who has been to 28 countries and 33 states, was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2016 and the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame in 2019.  Contact her at  rochelleriley.com.