Karen Carter Richards

Karen Carter Richards is a native Houstonian and is the CEO and Publisher of the Forward Times Publishing Company, the South’s largest independently owned and published newspaper. Her parents instilled in her a strong work ethic and the importance of community. Richards’ parents always stressed the importance of the Black Press and the value of its consistent voice. At the age of seven, her father put a basket on her bicycle and she had to deliver the newspaper in her neighborhood. Richards received a degree from The University of Houston and was recently nominated and selected as 1st Vice Chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which consists of more than 200 African American newspapers across the country. She serves as the chairperson of “Go Red Girlfriend,” an African American Awareness Initiative for the American Heart Association, and has recently founded the Julius and Lenora Carter Scholarship & Youth Foundation. The foundation benefits low-to-moderate income Houston high school seniors and college students interested in various areas of journalism.