About Me

Wendi C. Thomas is an award-winning independent journalist based in Memphis, Tennessee. Her work focuses on economic and racial justice. Thomas writes for The Christian Science Monitor, The Undefeated and is a senior writing fellow with the Center for Community Change.

Thomas was a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Thomas has also taught at the University of Memphis and at Harvard University’s Extension School, where she was invited to develop the school’s first journalism course about race and class.

From 2003 to 2014, Thomas was a metro columnist and assistant managing editor at The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. She was the first black woman to write opinion for the then 162-year-old newspaper.

Previously she was an editor at The Charlotte Observer, an editor and reporter at The (Nashville) Tennessean and a reporter at The Indianapolis Star. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Butler University in 1993.

Her many awards include her 2008 induction into the Scripps Hall of Fame for local commentary and second place in column writing in the 2012 National Headliner contest. She was also chosen as one of 12 fellows in ProPublica’s first Data Journalism Institute in 2016.

Follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

For speaking engagements, please contact her via the “Contact Me” page on this website.