Education

About Prof. Tonyaa J. Weathersbee

Prof. Tonyaa J. Weathersbee is a multiple-awarding winning journalist whose career has spanned more than three decades. She was born and reared in Jacksonville, Fla., and spent most of her career there as a reporter and columnist for The Florida Times-Union. Her columns centered on communities struggling with poverty and economic and social isolation, as well as racial justice and youth issues. 

In 2008, Tonyaa became the first Black person appointed to The Times-Union’s editorial board, and in 2020, she was inducted into the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communication Hall of Fame. She is one of only 177 graduates to receive that honor since it was created in 1970. 

Tonyaa has traveled extensively to Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and other nations in the Afro-Latin diaspora to examine and write about their lives outside of the prism of mainstream U.S. media. 

Tonyaa came to Memphis in November of 2016 as the metro columnist for The Commercial Appeal – a job she held until August 2022 – when she was hired as the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. 

One of Tonyaa’s research interests is the impact that media coverage wields on how rural Americans perceive Latino migrants. It was the topic of her master’s thesis and a paper that was selected for presentation at the 2019 Latin American Studies Congress. She is also interested in examining the impact that media coverage wields on driving solutions to problems in marginalized communities, and she someday hopes to write a book on her insights from her travels to Cuba and the Afro-Latin diaspora.

Tonyaa is a loving cat mom to Nox, a black shorthair, and her interests include biking, cupcakes, collecting art and books from her travels and watching The Twilight Zone. She’s also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Latin American Studies Association.