| Regina Brett | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 31, 1956 |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Title | Author/Columnist |
| Official website | |
Regina Brett (born May 31, 1956) is a columnist for The Plain Dealer, a daily newspaper serving Cleveland, Ohio. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary in 2008 and 2009.[1] Her first book, "God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours" was published in April, 2010 by Grand Central Publishing.
Previous to her work at The Plain Dealer, Brett worked as a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio for seven years. Over the course of her career, Brett has written almost 2,000 newspaper columns.
From 2006 to 2010, Brett hosted "The Sound of Ideas," a radio show on WCPN 90.3FM, a NPR affiliate located in Cleveland. She currently hosts "The Regina Brett Show" on 89.7 WKSU, Kent State's public radio station. The weekly program was inspired by Brett's book and invites listeners to join a conversation on a variety of topics.
Brett has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master's degree in religious studies from John Carroll University.
In 1998, Brett was diagnosed with breast cancer and included her experiences of chemotherapy and her recuperation in her columns in the Akron Beacon Journal. These columns earned her a National Headliner Award.[2]
In 2006, Brett wrote a column for The Plain Dealer entitled "50 Life Lessons", which has since been the most distributed column she has written to date, appearing on blogs as well as social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook. In many of these instances, Brett is misidentified as a 90-year-old woman.[3] The "50 Life Lessons" column has been expanded to fifty chapters for her upcoming book, "God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours".[4]
Brett was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the commentary category in both 2008 and 2009.
She received a lifetime achievement Batten Medal in 1999, and was nominated for a Batten Medal for her work in 2008.[5]
In October, 2009, Brett was inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland's Journalism Hall of Fame. Previous to her induction, the Press Club of Cleveland awarded her with four 2nd place awards and eight 1st place awards for column writing, feature writing, and reporting.[6]
Brett has received two National Headliner Awards. One for her columns about her fight with breast cancer and one for columns detailing her family history. She also won a second place Headliner Award for a series of stories about the "Hicks Babies," a national story about people who were sold as babies in a black market operation at the Hicks Clinic in Georgia to adoptive parents in Ohio the late 1950s.[7]
Northern Ohio Live Magazine gave Brett an Honorable Mention in 1997 and awarded her with an Award of Achievement in 1998.
The Ohio Associated Press nominated Brett for awards nine times between 1987 and 2009 for column writing and feature writing, giving her two 3rd place awards, two 2nd place awards, and five 1st place awards, including a 1st place award for Best Columnist in Ohio in 2009.
The Society for Professional Journalists gave Brett two 2nd place awards in the "Best Human Interest" and "Best Coverage of Children's Issues" categories in 1998, and a 1st place award in the "Best Columnist in Ohio" category in 2003.
Brett received a humor writing award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, for which she was the President from 1998 to 1999.[8]
Brett has received the Liberty Bell Award from the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association,[9] and she was named as the Ohio Library Council's "Citizen of the Year" in 2009.[10][11]