Cheryl Corley
Cheryl Corley is NPR’s Midwest Bureau Chief and is based in Chicago.
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NPR
Cheryl Corley is NPR’s Midwest Bureau Chief and is based in Chicago. She curates, assigns and edits stories primarily from reporters throughout the Midwestern states. She’s also edited several award-winning stories focusing on religion. Prior to her role as Midwest Bureau Chief, Corley was a long-time correspondent for the National Desk covering a wide range of issues and breaking news in the Midwest and across the country. She’s reported on the infamous Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis, the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and oil spills along the Gulf Coast, and about criminal justice issues affecting women and juveniles.

Corley also has served as a fill-in host for NPR shows, including Weekend All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and defunct shows Tell Me More and News and Notes.

Prior to joining NPR, Corley was the news director at Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ, where she supervised an award-winning team of reporters. She also worked as the City Hall reporter covering the administration of the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and others that followed. She also has been a frequent panelist on television news-affairs programs in Chicago.

Corley has received awards for her work from a number of organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Associated Press, the Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. She earned the Community Media Workshop's Studs Terkel Award for excellence in reporting on Chicago's diverse communities and a Herman Kogan Award for reporting on immigration issues.

Born and raised in Chicago, Corley graduated cum laude from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and is a former Bradley University trustee. While in Peoria, Corley worked as a reporter and news director for public radio station WCBU and as a television director for the NBC affiliate, WEEK-TV. She is a past President of the Association for Women Journalists in Chicago (AWJ-Chicago).

She was also the co-creator of the Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program. The critics/journalism training program for female high school students was originally a collaboration between AWJ-Chicago and the Goodman Theatre. Corley has also served as a board member and president of Community Television Network, an organization that trains Chicago youth in video and multimedia production.