Osita Iroegbu, a first generation Nigerian-American, is a community advocate, educator and communications professional. She previously worked at the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper as a general assignment reporter and at Legal Times weekly news magazine where she covered lobbying on Capitol Hill. She spent time as a public relations practitioner at Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and Virginia State University where her work included speech writing, media relations and community engagement. She also taught and co-instructed mass communication classes at Virginia State University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Osita, a Richmond native, is currently a PhD candidate in VCU’s Media, Art and Text doctoral program where she researches the intersection of media, race/class/gender, health and social justice. She is co-founder of the African Community Network, a nonprofit organization providing resources and services to African individuals and families in the Greater Metro Richmond area, and founder of the Little Princesses Mentoring Program, which links girls living in underserved communities with positive women in college. She occasionally writes editorial pieces for the Times-Dispatch as a guest columnist and has a newly-found affinity for Afrofuturistic literature and art. 

You can find Osita on Twitter at @osiroegbu.