Wanda Smalls Lloyd is author of COMING FULL CIRCLE: From Jim Crow to Journalism, published in 2020 by NewSouth Books. The memoir is a self-reflective exploration of the author’s life growing up in the Deep South and becoming a successful newspaper editor. The foreword was written by novelist Tina McElroy Ansa, the best-selling author of five novels, including Baby of the Family and Ugly Ways.

COMING FULL CIRCLE was listed by bookauthority.org as one of the “25 Best Journalism Books to Read in 2020.” Kirkus Reviews calls the memoir “Inspiring reading for aspiring journalists and students of civil rights.”

Lloyd released two books in 2020. She is co-editor (with Ansa) of MEETING AT THE TABLE: African American Women Write on Race, Culture and Community, an anthology of essays published by DownSouth Press in 2020. Lloyd is also co-editor/co-author of The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press, published October 2009 by University of Illinois Press. Lloyd and Ansa also co-host a podcast, “2 Old Chicks Who Know a Lot of Sh*t TM,” on Spotify and YouTube.

A retired newspaper editor and a former associate professor/former chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia, Lloyd was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame in 2019. She served more than eight years as executive editor of the Montgomery (AL) Advertiser, a Gannett newspaper. In this role, she was responsible for all of the news content for the daily newspaper and several weekly newspapers, montgomeryadvertiser.com, the editorial page and the newsroom’s staff and resources.

She was the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, based on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. The Institute offered journalism training to people of color coming from careers outside of journalism and who were interested in a mid-career shift into journalism. In Nashville, she was also co-host of “Behind the Headlines,” a weekly radio news analysis show on WFSK-FM, the Fisk University station.

In previous Gannett experience, Lloyd was senior editor/days & administration at USA TODAY, where she served earlier as deputy managing editor/cover stories and managing editor/administration. She was managing editor at The Greenville (S.C.) News, and was an editor at The Washington Post, the Providence Evening Bulletin, the Miami Herald and the Atlanta Journal. Lloyd has been a four-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize.

Lloyd has served on the journalism advisory boards at Alabama State, Savannah State, Auburn and Virginia Commonwealth universities. She was a member of the board of directors of the Alabama Associated Press Media Editors and the Alabama Press Association. She served a total of 12 years as a member of the Accrediting Committee of the Accrediting Council on Education for Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC).

She is a former director of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE), where she chaired the organization’s committees on Diversity, Human Resources and Nominations and she was co-editor of the “ASNE Bulletin” (later “The American Editor”). She was a co-founder and chair of the National Association of Minority Media Executives (NAMME), and she served as a member of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Board of Directors.

She directed the landmark NABJ study Muted Voices: Frustration and Fear in the Newsroom, a survey of black journalists and newsroom managers. She is a writer, frequent speaker and mentor on topics of race, journalism, newsroom diversity and career development.

Lloyd is an Ambassador member of the AARP Georgia Executive Council, and she has been a member of the Georgia Writers Association Board of Directors. She is also an Advisory Board member of The Learning Center/Senior Citizens, Inc., in Savannah, where she also presents. Her volunteer work includes the MLK Observance Day Association, Inc., the Frank Callen Boys & Girls Club and the Savannah Yamacraw Branch of ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History). She has been a speaker for TEDxSavannah.

Lloyd is a graduate of the Scripps Howard Academic Leadership Academy at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Communications, and also Leadership Savannah, Leadership Montgomery, Alabama, and Leadership Greenville, South Carolina.

Lloyd has been honored nationally for career achievement, including: The Robert G. McGruder Award for Media Diversity, Ida B. Wells Award for Media Diversity, Columbia University Career Achievement Award, and Distinguished Alumna of (NAFEO) National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Spelman College in Atlanta. In 2016 Spelman honored her with the Doctor of Humane Letters and she also holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from Briarwood College in Southington, CN. She was a fellow at the Management Training Center at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business Management.

Lloyd is a Diamond Life member of the Savannah Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and she is a member of the Savannah (GA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.