Rita Shelton Deverell was born in 1945 in Houston Negro Hospital, in the deeply segregated southern United States. She has been black and female ever since, and has plenty to say about issues arising from those realities, frequently with humour, in her 40 year career as a journalist, broadcaster, theatre artist, academic and television producer. Rita immigrated to Canada in 1967 as a Centennial bride, became a mother in 1974, and a citizen in 1975.

She holds a BA in Philosophy from Adelphi University, an MA in History of Religions from Columbia University/Union Theological Seminary, and an EdD from OISE/University of Toronto. Dr. Deverell is the recipient of numerous awards, including two Geminis for current affairs television, the Black Women’s Civic Engagement Network’s Leadership Award, the MediaWatch Award, and she is in the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and is a Member of the Order of Canada. She is one of the founders of Vision TV, the world’s first multifaith and multicultural television network, and is a former News Director at APTN, mentoring her Aboriginal successor in that role.

Rita was the first CanWest Global Fellow at the University of Western Ontario, Storyteller in Residence at Centennial College, and from 2009-2011 the 12th. holder of Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. 2010 marked the first production of her full length play about a cold war survivor and Saskatchewan theatre pioneer. 2011 sees the publication of three books, including Give Voice: Ten 20-minute Plays from Obsdidian Theatre’s Playwrights Unit, Deverell Editor, published by Playwrights Canada Press.

Artist Code: 943