Shelvia Dancy is a newspaper and television journalist who has published articles in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times. Her television reports have aired on CNN and Fox News. A “military brat,” she spent several years in Japan, and speaks Japanese. Previously she worked as a reporter/anchor in Raleigh, North Carolina, covering major stories such as the Duke Lacrosse alleged rape case. She also worked as a newspaper reporter in Washington, D.C., covering politics, human rights issues, and Supreme Court oral arguments.
She has worked as a reporter for several newspapers, including The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., and the Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York. She has also reported for NPR affiliate radio stations.
She earned a master’s degree in newspaper journalism from Syracuse University, which she attended after winning a coveted Newhouse Fellowship, awarded to just two graduate students each year. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and journalism from N.C. Central University, which she attended on an all-expenses-paid academic scholarship. She graduated summa cum laude, and was one of 17 college students in the country offered a reporting internship with the Associated Press. She was also editor of the student newspaper.
Shelvia gained her first reporting internship in high school, winning a competition to work as a “teen reporter” with WITN (NBC) in Greenville, N.C., and working at a radio station as co-host of a talk show for teens. At 19, she wrote obituaries for a small daily newspaper.
She has also worked as an adjunct journalism professor at N.C. Central University, and volunteered teaching English-as-a-Second-Language classes at Duke University and Syracuse University.