Karsonya Wise Whitehead

Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead is an American educator, author, radio host, speaker, and documentary filmmaker who is known as the #blackmommyactivist. She is the founding director of The Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice, a Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland, and the host of Today With Kaye on WEAA.^[1][2] Whitehead is also an Opinion Editorial columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American.^[3]

Whitehead received her B.A. from Lincoln University; her M.A. in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame; her graduate degree in Advanced Documentary and Narrative Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy;^[4] and her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.^[5][6] She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Whitehead was a middle school teacher in Baltimore City. She was also a documentary filmmaker with Metro TV, a PBS-affiliate and a senior producer for Music Television Networks (MTV). In 2001, she directed and produced The Twin Towers: A History which was nominated for a New York Emmy Award,^[7] her third nomination.

Whitehead had served as the National Secretary for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH),^[8] the National Secretary and as the National President (2020-2023) for the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA).^[9]

In 2020, Whitehead was selected by the Daily Record as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women;^[10] by the Baltimore Sun as the Best Radio Host.^[11] In 2019, Whitehead received the Collegium Visionary Award from the college of Holy Cross;^[12] the Exceptional Merit in Media Award (EMMA) from the National Women's Political Caucus for her work editing and compiling #BlackGirlActivism: Exploring the Ways We Come Though the Storm,^[13] a special issue of the Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism journal (Duke University Press); the Baltimore Sun named her as one of Baltimore's 25 "Women to Watch in 2019"; and, Essence magazine included her on the 2019 "Woke 100 List," of "black women advocating for change."^[14][15]

In 2021, Whitehead was named a "Leader in Diversity" by Baltimore Business Journal.^[16] In 2016, Whitehead received the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies' "Distinguished Alumni" Award from the University of Notre Dame.^[17][18] In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Progressive National Baptist Convention. In 2013, she received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship from Loyola University Maryland.^[19]

In 2021, Kaye received the Edward R. Murrow Regional Award in the inaugural category, Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Region 12); 2021 Chesapeake Associated Press Award for Outstanding Editorial or Commentary; and, was selected by the Baltimore Business Journal to receive the Leaders in Diversity Award.^[20] She also received The Amistad Award for her contributions to human rights and social justice from the Amistad Committee.

Whitehead is a curriculum writer who created and compiled the crowd-sourced Trump Syllabus K12 curriculum: Lesson Plans for Teaching During this New Age of Resistance.^[21]

Whitehead is the author of four books including Letters for My Black Sons: Raising Boys in a Post-Racial America^[22] and Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis^[23] which was reviewed in Journal of American History.^[24] A documentary film The Women of Philadelphia was made about the book ^[25] and it received both the 2015 Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians^[26] and the 2014 Letitia Woods Brown Book Award from the Association of Black Women Historians.

• Keynote, ASALH 90th Annual Black History Month Lunch, https://www.c-span.org/video/?405063-1/90th-annual-black-history-luncheon