Grady Fellowship Profile: Malena Cunningham Anderson

Congratulations to Malena Cunningham Anderson (ABJ ’80), one of the honorees to be inducted into the Grady College Fellowship during Grady Salutes on April 25, 2025.

Anderson is a news anchor and reporter who began her career working behind the scenes at CNN in 1982. In the years that followed, she worked as a reporter in Lexington, Kentucky, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and as a co-anchor in Savannah, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama.

During her career, she has received numerous awards including several Emmy Awards. Anderson’s work anchoring the half hour documentary “Beneath the Rubble,” the 40th Anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, earned her the prestigious regional Edward R. Murrow award and a National Association of Black Journalists Award of Excellence.

After retiring in 2004 from a 23-year career in TV news, Anderson founded Strategic Media Relations, a media consulting business. In 2017, she started Newslady Productions. Through that company, she has produced two award-winning documentaries: “Little Music Manchild: The Malik Kofi Story” and “SEED: One Man’s Journey to Grow Food, People and Community.” Her latest documentary,“Waiting,” has been accepted in several film festivals to date.

In 2021, Anderson started acting. She has appeared in five Lifetime movies including a starting role in “Dear Deadly Diary.” She has also had roles in “The Resident on FOX” and the HBO series “The Righteous Gemstones.” She can also be seen in commercials and streaming series.

Anderson is a currently a life-time member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the International Documentary Association, Women in Film & Television and the Black Women Film Network, among others.

She graduated with a degree in journalism from Grady College and was a member of the sorority Delta Sigma Theta while a student.  Malena is married to attorney Carl Anderson, and they live in Atlanta.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Anderson.

Grady College: What advice do you have for today’s Grady College students?

Malena Cunningham Anderson: My advice to Grady College students would be to travel as much as you can and experience everything. To be a great journalist, or filmmaker, you must be curious, try things, question things and explore. Having first-hand experience and knowledge will give you greater depth of a subject. It will also help you to understand a different lifestyle or point of view and most importantly, take you out of your comfort zone.  Also, don’t wait to get a job to produce work. Students today have technology and platforms available to them that we could never dream possible.

GC: What would you tell your 20-year-old self?

MCA: I would tell my 20-year-old self that “you’re only in the early days of breaking barriers and being a first. I was one of the first African American students to integrate my school in South Carolina when I was in the third grade! During my career in TV news, I was often the first or only Black woman or Black person in the newsroom or in the room covering major news stories. I would remind myself that I was equipped to do the job and never doubt my talents.

GC: What does this recognition mean to you?

MCA: I am honored by this recognition. So many amazing students have come through Grady College. I hope that being considered among those who have achieved is motivation for today’s students to focus on making a difference in their career and in their community.

GC: What motivates you?

MCA: I am motivated by the fact that I knew both my grandmother, Mamie Cunningham, who only had a sixth grade education, but was incredibly smart, and also, my great-grandmother, Ida Bradshaw. My great-grandmother had no formal education, but she became a businesswoman who retired in her 50s and owned her own home. She made sure she sent her daughter, Lena, to college, and Lena’s daughter, Betty, who was my mother, also graduated college and became a teacher.  I’m motivated by these women who were smart, creative, fierce and giving. It’s in my DNA to be the best that I can be. I can’t let them down.

GC: What are the most important skills communicators should master?

MCA: The most important skills a communicator must master are the ability to listen, to question and to always be curious.

GC: If you had college to do over again, what would you do differently?

MCA: Sometimes I wish that I could go back to my freshman year at UGA for a do-over! I was an out of state student from a very small town in South Carolina. Attending UGA was a big deal and sometimes overwhelming. I would have gotten involved in more student organizations and would love to have done a study abroad program.

GC: What experience at Grady College did the most to prepare you for your career?

MCA: More than anything, I appreciate the fact that J-school students were required to do at least one internship. I did two of them. I worked as an intern/reporter at The Greenville News Piedmont in Greenville, South Carolina. That summer, I had 33 stories in the paper including a front page story. At the end of the internship, the editor asked me to transfer to the University of South Carolina and change my major to newspaper and said his paper would pay for me to switch. However, that was not my interest, so I turned it down. When I returned to UGA in the fall as a senior, I secured a PR internship with the Clarke County School District. It was great to get experience in both areas, and what I learned during those internships helped me land my first job out of college. Before I went home for Christmas my senior year, the newspaper sent me a check for $500 and asked me to write at least two stories for the paper when I came home for the holidays. That was a sign to me that my talents meant something and showed that I could get paid in advance to work!

The 2025 Fellowship Inductees will be recognized along with the 2025 Alumni Award recipients during the annual Grady Salutes event. This year’s Grady Salutes will be a luncheon on Friday, April 25. Details about sponsorship information and reservations can be found on our Grady Salutes registration page.

Editor: Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu