Dr. Wil LaVeist
Wil LaVeist, Ph.D.Producer/ Web Managing Editor
Wil LaVeist, Ph.D. is an award-winning writer, multimedia communications consultant and professor. His research interest is in rhetoric and science communication. A graduate of the Tufts University School of Medicine Digital Health Communication certificate program, he focuses on how to achieve persuasive communications, such as in philanthropy and health, that inspires positive behavior changes. Dr. LaVeist also explores the impact of religious faith and the Black Press in American culture. The approach of the TSYI website is rooted in his dissertation research, Adding Soul to the Message: Applying African American Jeremiad Rhetoric as Culturally Competent Health Communication Online.
Dr. LaVeist has more than 20 years of print, broadcast and internet journalism experience. He was on the original team that launched
AZCentral.com, the online publication of the Arizona Republic. He led the web production and editorial teams of the original BlackVoices.com (Tribune Co.), now Blackvoices Huff-Post. He was the first Black metro columnist for the Hampton Roads Daily Press newspaper (Tribune Co.) in Newport News, Virginia established in 1896. First as a consultant through his firm LELLC, he developed the business plan blueprint and initially led Ebony Magazine's (Johnson Publishing) early efforts to expand online. He was publisher/editor of MIX Magazine (The Virginian-Pilot), Virginia's first multicultural publication, where he also hosted its public affairs TV show and directed its web team. He was a website consultant and news columnist for the New Journal and Guide, one of the nation's oldest black news publications circulating since 1900.
His work has also appeared in publications such as The Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, Los Angels Times, The Philadelphia Daily News. and The Arizona Republic, where he was a copy editor, reporter and online editor. "The Wil LaVeist Show" and podcast aired from the studios of Smooth 88.1FM WHOV
in Hampton. Dr. LaVeist has authored and contributed to books, including "Tom Joyner Presents How to Prepare for College," in partnership with The Tom Joyner Foundation and "Black Voices in Commentary" by the Trotter Group. His most recent book "Dear Daughter: A girl dad's marriage advice on love, pain, healing and the law" was first published in 2017. Dr. LaVeist was a discussion panel moderator, speech writer, and featured writer for the American Evolution: Virginia to America 1619-2019
commemoration, marking the 400 anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in English North America.
Dr. LaVeist received his bachelor's from The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, master's from The University of Arizona School of Journalism and doctorate from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
www.willaveist.com.
