
Cheryl Corley
Cheryl Corley is a Chicago-based NPR correspondent who works for the National Desk. She primarily covers criminal justice issues as well as breaking news in the Midwest and across the country.
In her role as a criminal justice correspondent, Corley works as part of a collaborative team and has a particular interest on issues and reform efforts that affect women, girls, and juveniles. She's reported on programs that help incarcerated mothers raise babies in prison, on pre-apprenticeships in prison designed to help cut recidivism of women, on the efforts by Illinois officials to rethink the state's juvenile justice system and on the push to revamp the use of solitary confinement in North Dakota prisons.
For more than two decades with NPR, Corley has covered some of the country's most important news stories. She's reported on the political turmoil in Virginia over the governor's office and a blackface photo, the infamous Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, on mass shootings in Orlando, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; and other locations. She's also reported on the election of Chicago's first black female and lesbian mayor, on the campaign and re-election of President Barack Obama, on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and oil spills along the Gulf Coast, as well as numerous other disasters, and on the funeral of the "queen of soul," Aretha Franklin.
Corley also has served as a fill-in host for NPR shows, including Weekend All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and defunct shows Tell Me More and News and Notes.
Prior to joining NPR, Corley was the news director at Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ, where she supervised an award-winning team of reporters. She also worked as the City Hall reporter covering the administration of the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and others that followed. She also has been a frequent panelist on television news-affairs programs in Chicago.
Corley has received awards for her work from a number of organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Associated Press, the Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. She earned the Community Media Workshop's Studs Terkel Award for excellence in reporting on Chicago's diverse communities and a Herman Kogan Award for reporting on immigration issues.
A Chicago native, Corley graduated cum laude from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and is a former Bradley University trustee. While in Peoria, Corley worked as a reporter and news director for public radio station WCBU and as a television director for the NBC affiliate, WEEK-TV. She is a past President of the Association for Women Journalists in Chicago (AWJ-Chicago).
She is also the co-creator of the Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program. The critics/journalism training program for female high school students was originally collaboration between AWJ-Chicago and the Goodman Theatre. Corley has also served as a board member and president of Community Television Network, an organization that trains Chicago youth in video and multimedia production.
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Several states surrounding Illinois plan on limiting or banning access to abortions, which could push people to cross the state line for services if the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
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Federal authorities in Chicago say Jason Van Dyke will not face federal charges. The former police officer, who is white, was convicted in the 2014 murder of a Black teenager.
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The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide whether a state law designed, in part, to protect sex trafficking victims, can be used as a defense for murder.
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Trayvon Martin was killed a decade ago. The man who shot him used Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as a successful defense. Critics say those laws are being abused and leading to more deaths.
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"Sixteen shots and a cover-up" was the rallying cry after a video showed a Chicago police officer killed a black teenager in 2014. On Thursday, Jason Van Dyke gets an early release from prison.
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Big cities in the U.S. are searching for ways to stem the sharp rise in homicides that has occurred over the past two years. A close look at Chicago, where nearly 800 people were killed in 2021.
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Two consecutive years of escalating gun violence and homicides leave big cities and small towns reeling as they search for ways to regain control of a problem with many causes.
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From trauma sessions to memorials to fundraisers, Oxford, Mich., continues on the path to recovery. A 15-year-old boy is charged with killing four students during last week's school shooting.
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Gun control laws have loomed large in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. With Wisconsin being a gun friendly state, some are asking whether a double standard exists about who is seen as a threat.
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While opioid related deaths and overdoses remain at crisis levels across the country, in Chicago there's a hopeful sign. Deaths and overdoses declined during the first half of the year.