Karsonya Wise Whitehead

Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead is an American educator, author, radio host, speaker, and documentary filmmaker who is known as the #blackmommyactivist. She is Associate Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland. In 2021, Dr. Kaye received the Edward R. Murrow Regional Award in the inaugural category, Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Region 12) and was selected by the Baltimore Business Journal to receive the Leaders in Diversity Award. She also received The Amistad Award for her contributions to human rights and social justice from the Amistad Committee As one of only a handful of Black women who solo host a daily drive-time afternoon radio shows, she is also currently a finalist for 2021 Chesapeake Associated Press Award for Outstanding Editorial or Commentary.

In 2020, Whitehead was selected by The Daily Record as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women; and, by the Baltimore Sun as the Best Radio Host. In 2019, Whitehead received the Collegium Visionary Award from the College of Holy Cross; the Exceptional Merit in Media Award (EMMA) from the National Women's Political Caucus for her work editing and compiling #BlackGirlActivism: Exploring the Ways We Come Though the Storm, a special issue of the Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism journal (Duke University Press); the Baltimore Sun named her as one of Baltimore's 25 "Women to Watch in 2019”; and, Essence magazine included her on the 2019 “Woke 100 List,” of “black women advocating for change."

Whitehead is the host of “Today with Dr. Kaye” on radio station WEAA, which received the 2020 Chesapeake Associated Press Award for Outstanding Editorial or Commentary; the 2019 Associated Press Award for Outstanding Talk Show and the second place Award for Outstanding Editorial or Commentary. Whitehead is an Opinion Editorial columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American.

In 2020, Whitehead founded The Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice on the campus of Loyola University Maryland.

Whitehead received her B.A. from Lincoln University; her M.A. in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame; her graduate degree in Advanced Documentary and Narrative Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy; and her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Whitehead was a middle school teacher in Baltimore City. She was also a documentary filmmaker with Metro TV, a PBS-affiliate and a senior producer for Music Television Networks (MTV). In 2001, she directed and produced The Twin Towers: A History which was nominated for a New York Emmy Award.

Whitehead serves as the National Secretary for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and the National Secretary for the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA).

Whitehead is the president of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA), 2020–2022.

In 2021, Whitehead was named a "Leader in Diversity" by Baltimore Business Journal. In 2016, Whitehead received the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies’ “Distinguished Alumni” Award from the University of Notre Dame. In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Progressive National Baptist Convention. In 2013, she received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship from Loyola University Maryland.

Whitehead is a curriculum writer who created and compiled the crowd-sourced Trump Syllabus K12 curriculum: Lesson Plans for Teaching During this New Age of Resistance.

Whitehead is the author of four books including Letters for My Black Sons: Raising Boys in a Post-Racial America and Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis which was reviewed in Journal of American History. A documentary film The Women of Philadelphiawas made about the bookand it received both the 2015 Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians and the 2014 Letitia Woods Brown Book Award from the Association of Black Women Historians.