National best-selling author and former news reporter ReShonda Tate Billingsley will speak Thursday, Feb. 25 at the University of Central Arkansas.
The lecture and book signing will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the McCastlain Hall Ballroom. Billingsley’s topic is
“Pursuing your Passion.”
The event is free and open to the public.
Billingsley is a national best-selling author of 18 books, including seven teen novels. Her sophomore novel, Let the Church Say Amen, is being made into a movie of which she is executive producer and actress Regina King is the director. Five of her other books have also been optioned for film by CodeBlack Entertainment.
She is considered one of the top inspirational fiction authors in the country. Billingsley has won numerous awards and is a five-time winner of the National Black Journalist Spirit in Words competition.
“Mrs. Billingsley’s visit is the first to the Central Arkansas area and we are just thrilled to be able to include her as part of our Black History Month Celebration here on the campus,” said Angela Jackson, interim director of UCA’s Minority Student Services. “I think her topic is a fitting tribute to Black History Month because she will be talking about tapping into your passion to live a purpose-filled life.”
Billingsley has been in the journalism field for more than two decades. Currently, she is the co-host of “From Cover to Cover” literary talk radio show and an editor for the Houston Defender newspaper.
Billingsley has worked as an anchor and reporter for NBC, ABC and FOX television stations in Beaumont, TX, Oklahoma City, OK and Houston, TX. She left her job at FOX News in Houston in 2007 to write full-time.
Her books have appeared on the Essence best-seller’s list more than 20 times, as well as The Washington Post, Dallas Morning News and Ebony magazine best-seller’s lists.
Billingsley graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin.
The event is co-sponsored by Minority Mentorship Program, Griot Society, Student Government Association, Theta Mu &Chi Eta Omega Chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and the Office of Minority Services.
For more information, contact Angela Jackson, interim director of Minority Student Services, at (501) 450-3135.
