Tracy Brown

Tracy Brown is Chief Partnerships Officer at Chicago Public Media, where she has strategic oversight in building key partnerships with corporate and community organizations, local and national newsrooms and media organizations. She also oversees advertising and sponsorship at WBEZ public radio and the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. She also leads innovative initiatives at CPM focused on sustainability and the news ecosystem, and manages relationships with supporters and funders of those initiatives.

Tracy joined Chicago Public Media in 2019 as managing editor at WBEZ, leading enterprise, investigations, daily news and special projects. In 2021, she became Chief Content Officer, overseeing 200+ staffers in newsrooms at WBEZ and The Chicago Sun-Times, along with broadcast programming, WBEZ’s talk show Reset, podcasts, community engagement/events, audience development and Chicago’s urban alternative music station Vocalo. 

Tracy spent more than a decade as a news leader at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including as deputy managing editor and Page 1 Editor, as well as editor of features, arts, and education. She also worked as an editor at The Dallas Morning News and worked at the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa BayTimes) and South Carolina’s The State newspaper. 

A University of Georgia graduate, she is the past chair of the Grady College of Journalism alumni board and a longtime member of the National Association of Black Journalists.