Ann-Marie Adams

Ann Marie Adams is an award-winning journalist. She is the editor and publisher of The Hartford Guardian, a civic-minded news magazine in print and online.

The Beginning

Adams began in journalism at Brooklyn College, where she became the first black female editor of The Kingsman. While still at Brooklyn College, she began working at the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, New York. After graduating from Brooklyn College, she moved back to her home state, Connecticut. (Adams had moved to from Connecticut to New York at age 19). When she return to Connecticut, she worked briefly at The Norwich Bulletin before she got a job at The Hartford Courant.

Affiliations

While at The Courant, she became the youngest president of the Connecticut Association of Black Journalists(CABC), a chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). She is also the founder and president of he National Association of Caribbean-American Journalists (NACAJ).

Noteworthy

As president of CABC, Adams spoke out AbOUT the paucity of minority journalists in the media. In June 2001, she was featured in an American Journalism Review article about the declining number of minority journalists in Connecticut. She also spoke out against the lack of mentorship among young black journalists by other black journalists, who subscribed to the only-one syndrome. This syndrome, she said, afflicts older journalists who, either consciously or unconsciously, want to remain the only Black in newsrooms.

Turning Point

After her departure at The Courant, she went on to work with other media organization both nationally and internationally, namely: People magazine, FOX News, and News 12CT and The Jamaica Gleaner. She has had assignments in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Jordan, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria, among others.

A ten-year veteran in the field, she writes about politics, government, travel, education and other social issues.

Accolades

She won the 2001 Lincoln University first-place award for best education series and numerous fellowships. She was a 2003 graduate of Leadership Greater Hartford a 2004 Independent Press Association George Washington Williams Reporting Fellow and a Recipient of Hartford Business Journal's 2006 Forty Under Forty Award award.

When she is not on assignment, she gives back to the community by tutoring or offering writing workshops.

Childhood Days

She was born in Kingston, Jamaica.

References