Soledad O’Brien

Award-Winning Journalist, Entrepreneur and Host of the Weekly Syndicated Political Show Matter of Fact

Expert on

  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Education
  • Leadership
  • Media
  • Women of Influence
  • Women in Leadership
  • Meeting Hosts and Emcees

 

Fee Range

$20,000–$25,000

Travels from

NY, USA

Biography

Soledad O’Brien is an award-winning documentarian, journalist, speaker, author, and philanthropist, who founded Soledad O’Brien Productions, a multi-platform media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces the Hearst TV political magazine program “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien” and is a correspondent for HBO Real Sports.

Soledad is also a thought leader, with over 1.3 million Twitter followers, who has a national impact through her speeches and numerous documentary films and is the author of two books, her critically acclaimed memoir “The Next Big Story” and “Latino in America.”
Her most recent productions include “The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, streams on Peacock, and was nominated for the Critics Choice Award. A multi-part series, “Black and Missing,” airing on HBO, won the Independent Spirit Award. Outbreak and Pandemic in Seattle, released on Hearst, the World Channel’s Local USA, and Yahoo, where it was awarded a Silver Telly. Other productions have appeared on Discovery Plus, CNN, BET, PBS, and others.

She also has a presence on op-ed pages of places like the New York Times and Huffington Post, and gave Congressional testimony on media disinformation. She has anchored shows on CNN, MSNBC, and NBC, and reported specials for Fox, BET, A&E, Oxygen, Nat Geo, the PBS NewsHour, WebMD, and Al Jazeera America, among others.

O’Brien’s work has been recognized with four Emmy awards, twice with the George Foster Peabody Award, three times with the Gracie Award, which honors women in media, twice with Cine Awards for her work in documentary films and also with an Alfred I. DuPont Award.

Speaker Videos

Disrupting and Dismantling Systematic Racism

Award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien discusses the impact of racial biases and stereotypes. By sharing voices and perspectives that often go unheard, Soledad brings the challenges of equality and justice into full view where they can be confronted and addressed. She adds powerful, real world insights by exploring systematic racism in selected US cities where efforts are underway to reform policing, incarceration, education, land ownership and more. Audiences leave with a new understanding of how each of us can better understand and assist in dismantling systemic racism.

Matter of Fact

As host of the weekly political magazine show Matter of Fact, Soledad O’Brien expands the conversation around the day’s most important issues by engaging in a more inclusive dialogue with decision makers who are shaping the new American political landscape. She shares her commitment to introducing the under-voiced into the national conversation, and offers powerful insights on the impact of highlighting these perspectives on individuals across the country. As Soledad reflects on her goal to bring the news above the noise created by the traditional media cycle, audiences take away a renewed outlook on the issues and dialogue that matter most to them.

Communicating in Times of Change

Award-winning journalist, documentarian, anchor and producer of the weekly political program Matter of Fact, and founder and CEO of Soledad O’Brien Productions, Soledad has reported from the scene of many disasters over the course of her storied career. From the Asian tsunami, the earthquake in Haiti, and Hurricane Katrina to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech University, she has learned how proactive and effective communication can assist in reassuring those impacted by a crisis. She shows leaders how to avoid common communication pitfalls and how to lead their teams confidently in the face of adversity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Brien has shared this inspiring virtual message with teams at tech companies ranging from Salesforce to Google and has received rave reviews.

The End of Affirmative Action: How Will U.S. Businesses Be Impacted?

After the 2023 SCOTUS ruling on Affirmative Action, a huge impact is expected to be felt not just for colleges and universities, but for the corporate world as well—as businesses rely heavily on higher education institutions for their talent pipeline. Data shows that diverse teams and companies outperform less diverse competitors, so it is critical that U.S. companies produce diverse teams to compete in the global economy.

So what happens next? In this comprehensive and thought-provoking talk, Soledad O’Brien examines the new rules and discusses proactive steps institutions and businesses can take in order to expand opportunities for Black and Hispanic students and recent graduates. What can college admissions offices do to stay committed to their schools’ diversity? What will the new race-neutral policies mean for recruitment, financial aid, scholarships, and employment? How can companies build the diverse teams necessary to give themselves a competitive advantage?

This riveting talk will draw from Soledad’s multipart series on Affirmative Action for her political show Matter of Fact, which she is producing with support from the Gates Foundation.