Dorothy R. Leavell named new chair of National Black Chamber of Commerce

Dorothy R. Leavell

Award winning civic leader, newspaper publisher and businesswoman Dorothy R. Leavell has been installed as the new chairperson of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Leavell will will preside over the chamber’s 18-member board of directors and help the trade organization expand its mission of strengthening minority-owned businesses, job creation and increase trade and economic opportunities in the United States and beyond.

According to the National Black Chamber of Commerce President, Harry Alford, Leavell has extensive expertise in the areas of marketing, economic development and job creation having been at the helm of a successful business for more than four decades combined with her passion for African American advancement and her commitment to young people.

Dorothy Leavell is publisher and chief executive officer of the Crusader Newspaper Group, which has published weekly newspapers in Chicago and Gary, Indiana, since 1940 and 1961, respectively. Previously she served as the first female chairperson of Amalgamated Publishers, a company that sells national advertising for more than 200 African American papers across the country.

She has served in a variety of executive positions with the powerful National Newspaper Publishers Association, a black newspaper trade organization, including chairman, treasurer and chairperson of the NNPA Foundation, is the co-founder of Heroes in the Hood, a program that celebrates extraordinary accomplishments of young people who have gone unrecognized in the mainstream media and has also led trade missions to Africa and the Caribbean.

The National Black Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1993, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with 140 chapters in the United States and 90 more abroad. Chief among its mission is to promote capitalism and fair trade; to provide technical support to its members; to identify procurement opportunities for minority enterprises; and to assist upstarts and entrepreneurs in effectively engaging the public and private sector.