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.
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Walter Mosley tells NPR's Cheryl Corley about his latest novel, The Man in My Basement. The best-selling author examines race, freedom and power in a book that chronicles an unusual relationship between two men -- one black, one white. -
Four U.S. soldiers are killed and six are wounded as insurgents fire on a base north of Baghdad. Dozens of Iraqis are killed in rocket attacks, roadside bombings and fighting with U.S.-led troops around the country. An the oil terminal off the southern city of Basra comes under attack, apparently by suicide bombers. Hear NPR's Cheryl Corley and NPR's Philip Reeves.
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NPR's Cheryl Corley speaks with Alexandra Patsavas, music supervisor of the television show The O.C.. The program has become a showcase for new music that's fallen under the mainstream radar.
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Five Marines die Sunday in fierce fighting near Iraq's border with Syria. And Spain says it will start bringing its 1,300 troops home from Iraq as soon as possible. Spain's prime minister says he does not believe the United Nations will be able to take over the occupation of Iraq. Hear NPR's Cheryl Corley and Jerome Socolovsky.
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NPR's Cheryl Corley talks to Randy Cohen, who writes The Ethicist column for The New York Times Magazine, about the dilemma of Laura Meigs. She's a first-year teacher in rural Mississippi. Her instinct is to correct her students' incorrect grammar and keep them from using racial epithets she finds offensive, but she's heard criticism that in doing so, she may be demeaning their culture.
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The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a horrific disaster -- and the full story was far worse than corrupt politicians of the time made known. Now author James Dalessandro uses fiction to set the record straight in his new novel 1906. He speaks with NPR's Cheryl Corley.
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Singer Mari Anne Jayme and trumpeters Marlon Winder and Matt White are among a group of promising young musicians invited to Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Started by the late jazz singer in 1993, the annual event offers workshops and coaching for emerging artists. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports. -
During the past week's Sept. 11 hearings, there were a lot of complaints about the intelligence community. The FBI was specifically criticized as disorganized and dysfunctional. Director Robert Mueller does plans some changes. Hear NPR's Cheryl Corley and NPR's Larry Abramson.
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The National Council on the Aging says that a growing segment of senior citizens are taking out what's called a reverse mortgage in order to remain at home. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.
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Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) urges the deployment of more troops to help in rebuilding and securing Iraq. Lieberman, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has staunchly supported the Iraq war. President George Bush said Sunday that military commanders in Iraq will have the support they require. Hear NPR's Cheryl Corley and Lieberman.
