Cheryl Corley
Cheryl Corley is a Chicago-based NPR correspondent who works for the National Desk. She primarily covers criminal justice issues as well as breaking news in the Midwest and across the country.
In her role as a criminal justice correspondent, Corley works as part of a collaborative team and has a particular interest on issues and reform efforts that affect women, girls, and juveniles. She's reported on programs that help incarcerated mothers raise babies in prison, on pre-apprenticeships in prison designed to help cut recidivism of women, on the efforts by Illinois officials to rethink the state's juvenile justice system and on the push to revamp the use of solitary confinement in North Dakota prisons.
For more than two decades with NPR, Corley has covered some of the country's most important news stories. She's reported on the political turmoil in Virginia over the governor's office and a blackface photo, the infamous Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, on mass shootings in Orlando, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; and other locations. She's also reported on the election of Chicago's first black female and lesbian mayor, on the campaign and re-election of President Barack Obama, on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and oil spills along the Gulf Coast, as well as numerous other disasters, and on the funeral of the "queen of soul," Aretha Franklin.
Corley also has served as a fill-in host for NPR shows, including Weekend All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and defunct shows Tell Me More and News and Notes.
Prior to joining NPR, Corley was the news director at Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ, where she supervised an award-winning team of reporters. She also worked as the City Hall reporter covering the administration of the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and others that followed. She also has been a frequent panelist on television news-affairs programs in Chicago.
Corley has received awards for her work from a number of organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Associated Press, the Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. She earned the Community Media Workshop's Studs Terkel Award for excellence in reporting on Chicago's diverse communities and a Herman Kogan Award for reporting on immigration issues.
A Chicago native, Corley graduated cum laude from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and is a former Bradley University trustee. While in Peoria, Corley worked as a reporter and news director for public radio station WCBU and as a television director for the NBC affiliate, WEEK-TV. She is a past President of the Association for Women Journalists in Chicago (AWJ-Chicago).
She is also the co-creator of the Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program. The critics/journalism training program for female high school students was originally collaboration between AWJ-Chicago and the Goodman Theatre. Corley has also served as a board member and president of Community Television Network, an organization that trains Chicago youth in video and multimedia production.
-
Chicago's Jackie Robinson West Little League team — that was lauded for their play and sportsmanship, even honored at the White House — has been stripped of their U.S. championship title. On Wednesday, league officials said adult mangers of the team cheated by skirting fair play rules that require all players to live inside the same geographical boundaries.
-
Chicago plans to replace its Lathrop Homes public housing project with a mix of condos and affordable housing. Residents say it doesn't need a revamp — and that the overhaul will displace too many. -
The brothers who ran one of the largest drug networks ever have been sentenced to 14 years in prison. They had received life sentences but will serve 14 years instead.
-
One of the primary tools that U.S. transportation departments count on to keep roads safe is road salt. But that has meant rising levels of chloride in many northern streams. -
President Obama has said he'll work to improve race relations between police and communitie, but in his hometown, many see a leader unable to sustain the progress predicted during his 2008 campaign.
-
A St. Louis County prosecutor is expected to announce the decision of a grand jury that is considering whether to indict a Ferguson, Mo., police officer in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
-
There is no announcement yet from the grand jury investigating the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black, 18-year-old. The panel is deciding whether to indict a white police officer in his death.
-
A grand jury decision on whether Officer Darren Wilson will face charges for killing Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., may be near. The grand jury met behind closed doors on Friday. -
While the Nazis may have used the children's opera Brundibár as a propaganda tool, it also was a symbol of hope for the children who performed it. It is now a way to remember profound loss. -
Near Ferguson, Mo., young people are taking the lead in protesting police brutality. Many say they had never considered activism before, but saw Michael Brown's shooting death as a call to action. -
The argument over how race plays a role in the interaction between police and residents of color has flared in the aftermath of the shooting death of Michael Brown. That's surprising to some of the small city's white residents who say the depiction of Ferguson is all wrong.
-
One major study found sexual assaults are lower on campuses of historically black colleges and universities. But some question those numbers and whether HBCUs have the resolve to address the issue.
