Deric A. Gilliard

Deric A. Gilliard retired after 25 years as a federal employee in 2022 after working from political appointees in the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. His newest book, The Longest Four Years of My Life: A View from the Field by a Black Fed in the Trump Administration, chronicles his journey navigating the most turbulent, divisive presidency of the modern era through the prisms of race, justice and faith. Prior to Gilliard's work as public affairs advisor to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) regional directors for the eight southeastern states, Gilliard served as the national communications director for Dr. King's organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Gilliard also worked in communications for two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and wrote for USA Today, Time, the Wichita Eagle-Beacon and was an editor for the Atlanta Daily World. Gilliard is currently working as a consultant with WSP, a multi-national company that was awarded the grant from the Department of the Interior (DOI) Dept. to develop a National Park Service national monument to honor and memorialize the contributions of the 1961 Freedom Riders. A public speaker and historian, Gilliard spoke to the troops in Germany shortly before Desert Storm and served as the first keynote speaker at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, AL. The son of military parents, Gilliard also served as the principle non-Muslim promoter of the Million Man March, covered the Atlanta Missing and Murdered Children cases and worked with SCLC President Lowery to raise the issues of economic justice, voter redistricting and the burning of the black churches. Gilliard authored his thesis on Joseph Echols Lowery and the Resurrection of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Gilliard earned his B.A. in Journalism at the University of Kansas and his M.A. in African-American Studies at Georgia State University. Gilliard is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and the National Association of Black Journalists.