Mark E. McCormick

Background

About Mark E. McCormick

I'm a New York Times best-selling author with 20 years of journalism experience as a reporter, editor and columnist. I serve as a trustee at The University of Kansas’ (my alma mater) school of journalism and I've been a Professional in Residence at the University of Oklahoma. I'm featured in the beat reporting chapter of the journalism textbook,"Writing and Reporting News, A Coaching Method." I’ve won more than 20 industry and community awards including five Gold Medals from the Kansas City Press Club. I'm featured in NFL Films’ “Barry Sanders: A Football Life,” and also featured in 'Roots and Branches: Preserving the Legacy of Gordon Parks' a documentary about WSU's quest to acquire the collected works of the trailblazing photographer, writer, filmmaker and native Kansan. Most recently I was featured in the documentary on journalist and statesman William Allen White entitled, “William Allen White: What’s the Matter With Kansas?” In 2015, I co-authored "African Americans of Wichita" with Arcadia publishing and in 2017, published “Some Were Paupers, Some Were Kings: Dispatches From Kansas” with Blue Cedar Press. That book was named Wichita State University’s 2020 Campus Read and taught in classes. I’m also a recent member of the Association of African American Museums' board of directors where I served as communications committee chair. I joined the Alpha Nu Boule chapter of Sigma Pi Phi in 2004 and in 2019 was named a BMe Vanguard Fellow. In 2020, I was appointed by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly to two commissions, the Kansas African American Affairs Commission, of which I serve as board chairman, and to the Commission on Racial Equality and Justice. Earlier this year, I won second place in column writing from the Kansas Press Association.