Krissah Williams Thompson (born 1979) is an American journalist at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. In 2020, Thompson was named the Managing Editor of Diversity and Inclusion, and is the first African American woman to hold the position of Managing Editor at ''The Washington Post''.

Early life and education

Thompson is from

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. She was interested in journalism from a young age, joining ''

The Daily Texan ''The Daily Texan'' is the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 12,000 during the fall and spring semesters, and it is among ...

'' as a freshman at The University of Texas. She earned her undergraduate degree at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

. At UT-Austin Thompson was a member of the Delta Xi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and held a Chips Quinn

Freedom Forum The Freedom Forum is the creator of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., which it sold to Johns Hopkins University in 2019. It is a nonpartisan 501 (c)(3) foundation that advances First Amendment freedoms through initiatives that include the Power Sh ...

Fellowship. She moved to the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

for her graduate studies in journalism. She joined ''

'' as a summer intern in 2001.

Research and career

Thompson has spent her entire professional career at ''The Washington Post''. She has written for Financial, National Politics and Style. She contributed to Being a Black Man, a collection of essays that covered race and Black identity. During the presidency of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, Thompson served as an editor of Style section. She covered Michelle Obama during the second term of Barack Obama. In the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown, Thompson was acting bureau chief during the

Ferguson unrest The Ferguson unrest (sometimes called the Ferguson uprising, Ferguson protests, or the Ferguson riots) were a series of protests and riots which began in Ferguson, Missouri on August 10, 2014, the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Bro ...

. She co-led the 2018 ''The Washington Post'' video-driven programme "The N-Word Project", which encouraged readers of the Post to document and share their views of the

n-word In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...

. The N-Word Project was nominated for an Emmy Award and shortlisted for an

Online Journalism Award The Online News Association (ONA), founded in 1999, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Washington D.C., United States. It is the world's largest association of digital journalists, with more than 2,000 members. The majority of ON ...

. In 2020, Thompson was made Managing Editor of Diversity and Inclusion at ''The Washington Post''. She is the first African American woman to hold the position of Managing Editor. At the same time, the Post announced it would hire several journalists to cover issues related to race. Thompson has said that she wants ''The Washington Post'' "to look like America and the communities we cover”.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Krissah Living people African-American journalists The Washington Post people 21st-century American journalists University of Texas at Austin alumni University System of Maryland alumni 1979 births 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people