Bio

Elizabeth Méndez Berry

Elizabeth Méndez Berry is Vice President and Executive Editor of One World, an imprint of Random House. Before joining One World, she invested in the arts, journalism and freedom of speech in roles at the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She co-founded several philanthropic initiatives, including Critical Minded, which supports cultural critics of color. A former critic and journalist, she started her career at Vibe Magazine; in his book Decoded, Jay-Z cited one of her essays as an inspiration for his song “Public Service Announcement.” And her Spanish-language oped on street harassment helped spark the country’s first ever city council hearing on street harassment. She is on the boards of A Long Walk Home in Chicago and Hedgebrook in Seattle.