Bowman briefed National Press Foundation fellows in February 2024: America is Changing: How to Cover it and Find Out Why.

Bobbi Bowman worked as a news reporter, editor and publisher for more than 40 years at newspapers including The Washington Post, USA Today and the Detroit Free Press. She retired from the newsroom in 2012 and became a  graduate student in History. That’s when she found the best story of her career — how her mother’s family survived slavery in Virginia.

In 2019, she and six of her colleagues were inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. They were recognized for filing an historic discrimination complaint against their employer, The Washington Post. That complaint lead The Post to hire and increase opportunities for Black journalists,

She also received the prestigious Ida B. Wells award in 2009  for her work at the American Society of News Editors (now the News Leaders Association) that changed the conversation on newsroom diversity to a conversation on reaching new audiences created by the changing U.S. demographics.

She’s now writing a book telling the story of “How The Williamson Family Survived Virginia-1790-The Present.”.