The Kennedy Center celebrated Max Roach’s centennial with a performance of “We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite,” featuring vocalist Cassandra Wilson, poets Sonia Sanchez and Saul Williams, and a band led by music director and drummer Nasheet Waits, in a powerful tribute to Roach’s legacy of civil rights activism.
Author Archives: Brenda C. Siler
Brenda Siler is an award-winning journalist and public relations strategist. Her communications career began in college as an advertising copywriter, a news reporter, public affairs producer/host and a jazz program producer/host. After college, she continued producing and hosting jazz programs for ten years.
Currently a contributing writer for the Washington Informer, Siler writes about STEM, HBCUs, the arts, entertainment, Washington, DC area dining. She also has written articles and chapters for public relations industry trade publications, including PRNews, Ragan Report, and Inside Organizational Communications.
Siler has led national, regional, and local communications departments in Atlanta and Washington, DC. She has worked at AARP, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Red Cross, United Way, and UNCF-the United Negro College Fund. At UNCF, she oversaw the rebranding of America’s largest minority scholarship fund, retaining its iconic tagline, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Siler is a lifetime member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), a global professional association with members in 80 countries. She was the first person of color to serve as chairperson for the IABC international executive board. In 2017, she received the IABC Fellow designation recognizing her achievements in global organizational communications.
Siler is a native Washingtonian and an alumna of Spelman College. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
