Sheila Dean Brooks, Ph.D. is an author, Emmy-award winning journalist, entrepreneur and advocate for minority, women and diversity issues and small businesses. Her 28-year-old company, SRB Communications, is a full-service advertising and marketing agency in Washington, D.C. that specializes in multicultural markets. The agency helps build brand awareness in outreach and public education campaigns for its clients’ programs and initiatives through media channels including radio and TV commercials, brand videos, outdoor, print, digital and social media.

Prior to starting her firm in 1990, Dr. Brooks built a distinguished television career as a news director, reporter, anchor and documentary producer at CBS, NBC, PBS, and Fox TV affiliates. She is a sought-after speaker and author, releasing her first book, “Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social Justice,” in spring 2018.

Dr. Brooks has spent 40 years working in media and communications. She serves on numerous boards and has received more than 150 awards for her accomplishments. She teaches multicultural marketing in her role as adjunct faculty in the graduate school’s Strategic Public Relations program at The George Washington University.

Dr. Brooks received a Ph.D. in Communication, Culture and Media Studies in May 2015 from Howard University. She has a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from Howard and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle.