Deborah D. Douglas

Deborah D. Douglas, a distinguished member of the journalism community, directs the Medill Solutions Journalism Hub at Northwestern University, where she also serves as a faculty member. She is the founding co-editor-in-chief of The Emancipator, an award-winning digital platform that reimagines abolitionist newspapers, and she sits on its advisory board. 

Douglas’ significant contributions to journalism have earned her multiple recognitions, including the Society of American Travel Writers 2021 Guidebook of the Year for her work on the first edition of Moon U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement.

Her extensive career includes roles such as the Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor at DePauw University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project, where she amplified underrepresented expert voices. Additionally, she was the founding managing editor of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Douglas has participated in prestigious fellowships like the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Fellowship at Columbia University, the Complicating the Narrative Fellowship by the Solutions Journalism Network, and the Kaiser Family Foundation/NABJ Fellowship.

At Northwestern University, Douglas spearheaded a graduate investigative journalism capstone on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and imparted best practices in Karachi, Pakistan, as part of a teaching exchange. 

Douglas’ adventures in thought leadership were seeded at the Chicago Sun-Times. She served as Deputy Editorial Page Editor/Columnist, among other management roles. Her reporting and commentary have been featured in a wide array of publications such as The Guardian, Washington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, Afar magazine, Ms., ProPublica, Time, Borderless, The Boston Globe, American Prospect, Columbia Journalism Review, VICE News, USA Today, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Douglas is also among the 90 contributors to the New York Times bestselling Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019. 

Her work has been extensively covered by major media outlets including the Washington Post, NPR, BBC, PBS, Associated Press, WGBH, WBUR, WGBH, WBEZ, NewsNation, and more. She presented at the inaugural Obama Summit, and in 2016, The New York Times magazine cited her reporting on Black women and erasure. A product of the Great Migration, Deborah D. Douglas is Northern-born and Southern-rooted, embodying a blend of soft sensibility with an urban edge.