DEBORAH MATHIS was a working journalist for three decades, having served as White House Correspondent for Gannett News Service, a nationally syndicated columnist and a regular contributor to various political talk shows. She held a Shorenstein Fellowship at Harvard University and was an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern University.

She is the author of four books: Yet A Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don’t Feel at Home (Warner Books 2002); What God Can Do (Atria/Simon and Schuster 2004); Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women (Agate Books, 2007); and Play, Win, Die: The True Story of the Murder of Lottery Winner Abraham Shakespeare (Berkley 2015). Mathis divides her time between Washington, D.C. and Orlando, Florida.