JD - Columbia University
MS - Journalism; Columbia University
MA - History; Columbia University
BA - Journalism; Georgia State University

Professor E.R. Shipp is a journalist-scholar with advanced degrees from Columbia University – as well as from a life that, as Langston Hughes said, has been no crystal stair. She is a founding faculty member of the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University. There she teaches multimedia journalism in the spirit of Sankofa: preparing students to be storytellers no matter what form that takes in the future, while firmly rooted in traditions and values honed over the years.

Prof. Shipp is a 1996 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, considered one of the most prestigious awards in American journalism. She was the first Black woman to receive the Pulitzer in the category of commentary.

Her career in journalism has taken her to The New York Times, The New York Daily News and The Washington Post. At the Post, she was the first Black person to serve as ombudsman. She currently pens a biweekly column for The Baltimore Banner, writes for various Black publications, and is an occasional commentator on public radio, including Morgan’s NPR-affiliated WEAA-88.9FM.

She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Association of Opinion Journalists, the Organization of News Ombudsmen, the NAACP, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and The Open Church of Maryland.

Though born in Conyers, Ga., when it was still rural – and televisions, telephones, indoor plumbing and paved roads were luxuries – she considers home to be the village of Harlem in New York City. She is a foodie and a dedicated genealogist. She is also a lifelong learner who loves jazz, train travel, Scrabble, TV, public radio, movies, and the New York Yankees. Prof. Shipp resides in Baltimore with two cats, Sammy Davis Jr. and Lola Falana.

Research Interests: Black media; the whitewashing of history; life navigated by Black people in Southern communities amid the great exodus of millions of their kinsmen to points north and west; and genealogy

Teaching Interests: Black media, research, interviewing, opinion writing, community-based journalism, legal affairs reporting