The Chicago Urban League’s IMPACT Leadership Development Program is proud to host this event thanks to the generosity of the MacArthur Foundation, the CAFÉ Group and Cleveland Avenue. Thanks, too, to the Civic Leadership Development Exchange (CDLE) based in the Office of Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago for their partnership in this event.
The conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Nykia Wright will take place from 10:00am to Noon on Saturday, November 5th. Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark 1619 Project. Nykia Wright is the CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times and an IMPACT alumna. The event is offered to you free of charge, and you will not want to miss the exchange between these ground-breaking Black women leaders!
Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis and limited to one per person.
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist
Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for The New York Times. In 2017 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and in 2020 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work on the 1619 Project. Hannah-Jones is the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at the Howard University School of Communications, where she also founded the Center for Journalism and Democracy.
Nykia Wright
Nykia Wright, CEO, Chicago Sun-Times
Nykia Wright is the CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times. She is the first African American CEO of a major metropolitan news organization in the country. She is a recognized leader in the journalism industry and is responsible for managing significant disruption, driving change, and charting a new direction for sustainable local journalism. In January 2022, the Chicago Sun-Times was acquired by Chicago Public Media to form the largest non-profit news organization in the country.
Nykia’s professional experience includes strategic advisory and growth planning, operational turnarounds, change and transformation, and process design and improvement for private equity acquisitions.
Nykia was a member of the 2020 Urban League IMPACT Class and was a 2022 Leadership Greater Chicago Burnham Fellow. She is being honored this year as YWCA’s outstanding business leader for 2022.
Nykia has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. She has also studied international business in the UK and India. Nykia is a member of Chief, The Chicago Network, and The Economic Club of Chicago, and she sits on the board of Music of the Baroque, Choose Chicago, the Executives’ Club of Chicago, and the American Cancer Society. She is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where she is charged with advising the business school leadership on the future direction of business and society for MBA students.
