Sybril Brown
Professor of Journalism
Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business
Biography
Dr. Sybril Brown, affectionately known as “Dr. Syb,” is a Vanderbilt-educated, Harvard-trained, two-time Emmy award-winning multimedia journalist, author, international speaker and lecturer. Currently, Dr. Syb is a tenured professor of journalism at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dr. Syb is a master teacher with experience on and off line as well as across institutional types teaching at public, private, two- and four- year institutions and at predominantly black and white campuses. In 2012, she was among three finalist for Belmont’s highest teaching honors. She has created numerous courses including: Digital Citizenship, Entrepreneurial Media, Social Media Reporting and Covering Diverse Populations.
A respected journalist, Dr. Syb began her career working behind the scenes at ABC in Milwaukee, CBS in Chicago, and was a former general assignment reporter, fill-in anchor and fill-in talk show host at the CBS affiliate in Nashville. The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) named Dr. Syb the 2015 Journalism Educator of the Year and she was a recipient of the NABJ Region 3 Achiever Award in 2014. Most recently she was recognized as: the 2015 Educator of the Year by The Tennessee Tribune, the 2015 Diversity Leader of the Year by the Nashville Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and she received the 2015 Trailblazer Award for Excellence in Journalism Education from community organization Everything Underground.
With extensive experience in traditional and social media fields spanning more than 15 years, Dr. Syb is the author of two books: Innovate: Lessons from the Underground Railroad, an examination of the UGRR and the Internet as among America's most effective, innovative and disruptive networks, and The Color-Full Alphabet Book, a Dr. Seuss-like book pairing positive images of children of color with encouraging words.
Dr. Syb earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Vanderbilt University, her M.Ed. in College Student Personnel from Loyola University of Chicago and her B.A. in Broadcast and Electronic Communication from Marquette University.