Sonya Ross is founder & editor in chief of Black Women Unmuted, a digital media outlet devoted to covering the political engagement of Black women in the United States. She founded Black Women Unmuted in 2019 after a 33-year career at The Associated Press. She is The AP’s first Black woman White House reporter and, in 1999, became the first Black woman elected to the board of the White House Correspondents Association. Sonya was the pool reporter aboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, also an historic first. In 2010, she established specialty race & ethnicity coverage at AP that transformed the industry’s approach to gathering news for and about people of color.

In 2018, Sonya was inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame, DC Pro Chapter. She is the 2023 recipient of the Washington Association of Black Journalists’ Legacy Award for her distinguished leadership in increasing access and opportunities for journalists of color. She was the founding chair of the political reporting task force for the National Association of Black Journalists, is currently vice-chair of the Journalism & Women’s Symposium, and serves as secretary of the SPJ Foundation Board. Sonya also serves on the boards of the Washington Press Club Foundation and the National Newspaper Publishers Association Fund. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.