Description
An attorney by training, Michelle D. Bernard is a journalist, social critic, author, columnist, and public speaker. She is also the president & CEO of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy. An ardent advocate of women’s human rights, Ms. Bernard has assisted in the development and implementation of training programs built on the pillars of democracy, women’s rights and religious freedom, political activism in a democracy, issues of governance, free markets, and non-governmental organizations. In March 2018, the National Congress of Black Women awarded Ms. Bernard the 11th Annual Shirley Chisholm Memorial Trailblazers Award. Ms. Bernard is the author of Naming the Sin: Are Churches Helping to Stop Domestic Violence or Enabling It, Sojourner’s (December 2013), Moving America Toward Justice: The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 1963-2013 (2013), Women’s Progress: How Women Are Wealthier, Healthier and More Independent Than Ever Before, (2007) and is a contributing author to the National Urban League’s State of Black America 2009: Message to the President ( 2009) and Lifetime Network’s Secrets of Powerful Women: 25 Successful American Politicians Tell How They Got Where They Are – And What It’s Like (2010). Additionally, Mrs. Bernard is the author of numerous opinion editorials and commentaries that have appeared in various publications, including Politico, Roll Call, Sidewire, US News and World Report, The 74, The Hill, The Huffington Post, The Root. Ms. Bernard has appeared regularly as a political analyst and media commentator on Al Jazeera, CNN, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher; MSNBC and TV One’s News One Now with Roland Martin and frequently guest hosted Washington Watch with Roland Martin until that program ended. In 2009, Ms. Bernard co-created and hosted MSNBC’s education reform television special, About Our Children. Ms. Bernard is a member of the Board of Directors of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, the McLean Project for the Arts, and International Women’s Forum of Washington, D.C. where she served as its Leadership Foundation Liaison from 2013 to 2015.