Ava Thompson Greenwell
Professor
Ava Thompson Greenwell teaches reporting classes at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. In addition to her classroom duties, she has held several administrative posts, including associate dean for curriculum, director of the Teaching Television Program, co-curator for the nationally recognized Ida B. Wells award and director of the McCormick Tribune Fellows Program. Currently, she serves as co-director of the South Africa Journalism Residency Program and as faculty mentor for the Posse Program.
The Chicago native is director/producer of Mandela in Chicago, a documentary film about the city’s anti-apartheid movement. She is also author of Ladies Leading: The Black Women Who Control Television News. Greenwell, an academic life coach, has been a freelance correspondent for WGN-TV and Chicago Tonight, a PBS news program. She also worked as a reporter at WFLA-TV in Tampa, FL; WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, MN; and WEHT-TV in Evansville, IN.