A’Lelia Bundles BIO

A’Lelia Bundles--author, journalist and former network television news executive—currently is at work on a biography of her great-grandmother and namesake, A’Lelia Walker, who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

Ms. Bundles’s critically-acclaimed, best-selling biography, ON HER OWN GROUND: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker –the first truly comprehensive biography of her great-great-grandmother—was named a 2002 Borders Books-Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, a 2001 New York Times Notable Book, a 2001 Washington Post Best Biography, the 2001 Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize winner by the Association of Black Women Historians for the best book on black women’s history and a 2002 Honor Book by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. ON HER OWN GROUND, the only accurate account of Walker ’s life, is based on nearly three decades of Ms. Bundles’s meticulous research in the libraries, historical societies, courthouses and private homes of more than a dozen U. S. cities. Her young adult biography, MADAM C. J. WALKER: ENTREPRENEUR [Chelsea House 1991] received an American Book Award. An extensively revised version of MADAM C. J. WALKER: ENTREPRENEUR will be released in July 2008 from Facts on File/Chelsea House.

In 2006 Ms. Bundles began a new phase of her professional life as she ended a thirty year career in network television news, most recently as director of talent development for ABC News in Washington , D.C. and New York . Among her responsibilities were monitoring the transition of new correspondents to the network, the creation and coordination of a news division wide performance review process for more than one thousand employees, establishing a management training program for senior executives and seminars for junior staff, and overseeing various career development and mentoring initiatives.

Ms. Bundles was deputy bureau chief of ABC News in Washington from 1996 to 1999, after twenty years as a network television producer with ABC and NBC News. From 1989 until 1996 she was a producer with ABC’s “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” on many award-winning “American Agenda” segments. While at NBC News from 1976 to 1989 in New York, Washington, Atlanta and Houston, her assignments for “Nightly News,” “Today” and several primetime specials and magazine broadcasts included Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign, the 1984 Democratic Convention, the Atlanta youth murders and several hurricanes.

Ms. Bundles’s speeches about Madam Walker, media and journalism have been well-received across the country by audiences at conferences, libraries and educational institutions including Harvard University , the U. S. Postal Service, the National Archives, Spelman College , Princeton University , the Smithsonian Institution, the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, the Library of Congress and several book festivals. She has appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Fresh Air,” C-Span Book TV’s “Public Lives,” WNET/13’s “A Walk Through Harlem” and other national programs. Her articles have been published in the New York Times Book Review, O (The Oprah Magazine), Parade, Essence, Fortune Small Business, Black Issues Book Review, the Radcliffe Quarterly, several other magazines and on her website at madamcjwalker.com.

She is a Columbia University trustee and a member of the board of the Madam Walker Theatre Center in Indianapolis , the Dean’s Council at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the editorial board of the Indiana Historical Society and the Foundation for the National Archives.  Ms. Bundles has served as president of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association, a Radcliffe College trustee, Radcliffe Quarterly advisory board member, a member of the Harvard Alumni Association Nominating Committee, co-chair of the National Association of Black Journalists Authors Showcase, a member of the Board of Governors of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, a Harvard Alumni Association director, a Harvard Club of Washington director, chair of the Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize Committee of the ABWH and a National Women’s Hall of Fame board member. She has been a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s Writers Workshop. She currently is a community scholar at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

Among Ms. Bundles’s journalism awards are a du Pont Gold Baton and an Emmy. As well, she spearheaded the national campaign that led to the 1998 U. S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage stamp of Madam Walker. She was inducted into the Black Memorabilia Hall of Fame in 1991 and received a 2002 Harvard Alumni Association Award for outstanding service through alumni activities and a 2004 Distinguished Alumnae Service Award from Radcliffe. In 2003 she created the 100 Books, 100 Women campaign to expand the library at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York

Ms. Bundles graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and Radcliffe College and received a masters degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a member of the Alpha Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard College and received an honorary doctorate from Indiana University in May 2003. She collects kaleidoscopes and African American memorabilia and lives in Washington , DC .

For more information about booksignings and speeches, contact her at ABundles@gmail.com

Links about A'Lelia Bundles:

http://www.cityofno.com/pg-1-241-take-your-daughter-to-the-library-day-just-us-girls.aspx