Cheryl Corley
Cheryl Corley is a Chicago-based NPR correspondent who works for the National Desk. She primarily covers criminal justice issues as well as breaking news in the Midwest and across the country.
In her role as a criminal justice correspondent, Corley works as part of a collaborative team and has a particular interest on issues and reform efforts that affect women, girls, and juveniles. She's reported on programs that help incarcerated mothers raise babies in prison, on pre-apprenticeships in prison designed to help cut recidivism of women, on the efforts by Illinois officials to rethink the state's juvenile justice system and on the push to revamp the use of solitary confinement in North Dakota prisons.
For more than two decades with NPR, Corley has covered some of the country's most important news stories. She's reported on the political turmoil in Virginia over the governor's office and a blackface photo, the infamous Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, on mass shootings in Orlando, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; and other locations. She's also reported on the election of Chicago's first black female and lesbian mayor, on the campaign and re-election of President Barack Obama, on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and oil spills along the Gulf Coast, as well as numerous other disasters, and on the funeral of the "queen of soul," Aretha Franklin.
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.
A Chicago native, 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 is also the co-creator of the Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program. The critics/journalism training program for female high school students was originally 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.
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Two consecutive years of escalating gun violence and homicides leave big cities and small towns reeling as they search for ways to regain control of a problem with many causes.
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From trauma sessions to memorials to fundraisers, Oxford, Mich., continues on the path to recovery. A 15-year-old boy is charged with killing four students during last week's school shooting.
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The town of Oxford, Mich., has begun holding funerals for the four students killed during the Nov. 30 school shooting. Groups are raising funds and will decide where to donate the money.
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Prosecutors charged the 15-year-old accused of killing four students and injuring others at a Michigan High School as an adult. Thousands of children are tried or incarcerated as adults each year.
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Five people died during the Waukesha Christmas parade vehicle crash. They ranged in age from 52 to 81. Several of the victims were a part of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies.
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Authorities in Waukesha, Wis., are still trying to understand why a driver of an SUV crashed through a Christmas parade killing at least five people and injuring 40 others.
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The prosecution and defense offered closing arguments in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial on Monday. A jury will decide whether Rittenhouse's shooting of three men, killing two of them, was in self-defense.
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Judge Bruce Schroeder, who is overseeing the Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wis., has a reputation as a no-nonsense judge. But his rulings over evidence and language in the case has sparked outrage.
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Jury selection begins Monday for the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. He faces multiple charges after fatal shootings during protests in Kenosha, Wisc.
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While opioid related deaths and overdoses remain at crisis levels across the country, in Chicago there's a hopeful sign. Deaths and overdoses declined during the first half of the year.