About

Brandi Kellam is an Emmy award-winning journalist and documentary film director who has reported and produced for several national news outlets including ProPublica, CBS News, NBC News, and BET.

Her latest investigation,“Uprooted,” in collaboration with ProPublica and the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO (VCIJ), delves into the historical role U.S. colleges and universities have played in displacing communities of color. Kellam’s reporting was co-published by ESSENCE Magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her reporting has also sparked statewide policy discussions amongst Virginia state lawmakers, city officials, and university administrators, including legislation that seeks to study the issue across the state and explore potential avenues for redress.

Previously, Kellam reported and produced for MSNBC and CBS News, covering politics, entertainment, transportation, and social justice issues. Notably, she spent five weeks in Minneapolis contributing to network coverage of George Floyd’s killing in police custody for CBS News during the summer of 2020. In 2021, Kellam received a reporting grant from Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center For Journalism and Civil and Human Rights, where she focused on housing injustice and inequality in Newport News, Virginia.

Kellam’s passion for meaningful storytelling and innovation has led to launching legacy projects at both CBS News and NBC News including, “Local Matters,” an original series for CBSN focused on local politics across the U.S.. Kellam was also founding co-lead of the “Young Professionals Network” at NBC Universal, an internal resource group focused on cultivating early-career employees. Kellam has been an instructor, leading course discussion on journalism for the S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University where she earned a master’s degree in broadcast and digital journalism. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.