Sheila Brooks, Ph.D.
Dr. Sheila Brooks is an accomplished entrepreneur, author, Emmy-award winning journalist and expert in multicultural marketing, energy and utilities, public health communications and entrepreneurial education. She is founder, president and CEO of SRB Communications, a full-service advertising, marketing and public relations agency that specializes in multicultural markets and video production. Her more than four decades of trailblazing leadership in media and communications reflects the long track record of success in and commitment to Washington, D.C.’s creative and entrepreneurial economy. The boutique agency has headquarters in Washington, D.C. with a satellite office in Baltimore, Maryland.
A former TV anchor, reporter, executive producer and news director, she has received more than 300 journalism and entrepreneurial awards and honors. Among them are a 2022 Minority Business Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Hall of Fame from the Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council (CRMSDC), two Emmy-Awards and induction in the Mid-Atlantic region’s Silver Circle, an honor from the National Society of Television Arts and Sciences for 25 years of communications service. In 2019, Dr. Brooks received the prestigious Ida B. Wells Award from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). She also received the 2017 NABJ President’s Award – a three-time honor and the 2011 NABJ Pat Tobin Entrepreneurial Award. She received the 2019 NAACP Image Award Nomination for her first book, Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social Justice. She wrote a chapter in the 2020 book, Meeting at the Table: Race, African-American Women Write on Race, Culture and Communications.
Brooks is a dedicated advocate for minority and women entrepreneurs and small business. She is a thought leader who strongly supports meaningful change in diversity, equity and inclusion.
Throughout her career, she has served on numerous national and local nonprofit and university boards. Most notably are the Federal City Council as a board trustee and Jim Vance Media Institute at Archbishop Carroll High School In her role as Chair of the President’s Club of DC, an organization of legacy African American entrepreneurs, she serves as a member of the advisory council on the Pepco Supplier Diversity Roundtable. Previously, she served as Chair of the Board of Visitors for Morgan State University’s School of Journalism and Communications.
Brooks teaches multicultural marketing in The George Washington University’s graduate school’s Strategic Public Relations Program. She has a Ph.D. and Master of Arts degree from Howard University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she was inducted in the department’s 2018 Hall of Fame.
