Jen Richer

Jen Richer

Jen Richer is the Midday Host and News Director for Washington’s WONK FM. She has been in the DC market for over a decade, most recently as the morning show co-host and executive producer on 94.7 Fresh FM, as well as a regular contributor on All News 99.1 WNEW, and the host of the CBS Radio community affairs program Fresh Perspectives. She has been a regular contributor for Washingtonian Magazine, as well as featured in The Washington Post Magazine, and Northern Virginia Magazine, and on the cover of Nova Dog Magazine for her work in the community. Jen started her radio career at the heritage news talk station WMAL in Washington DC as a digital reporter and new media manager, and in 2007 earned the Edward R Murrow Station of the Year award. She moved to the Washington D.C. area from San Diego in 2002, where she studied International Affairs, Art History, and International Media at The George Washington University’s Elliott School. When she’s not geeking out over NASA and STEM development, she is a full time rescue dog mom of two, Puppy Bruce and Mr. Grant and an advocate for animal rescue and adoptions. She is a military sister and a supporter of military families and first responders. Having lost her grandmother to Ovarian Cancer, she has become a champion for awareness of the disease and works closely with the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition and the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, hosting their annual D.C. fundraisers. One of her greatest joys is traveling, and when she’s not visiting her family on the West Coast, she and her best friend Lindsey are cashing in airline miles as they fly their way to their goal of seeing all seven continents by 2023.

 

Library of Congress Celebrates American Hero Rosa Parks

By Jen Richer
Civil rights icon Rosa Parks waves to the audience

If you get a chance to head to the Library of Congress, make sure you take time to visit an incredible exhibition commemorating the American icon, Rosa Parks.

Of course you know Parks for her history-altering decision on December 1, 1955 to refuse to give up her seat to a white man on a crowded bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott that was a turning point for the civil rights movement, but her courageous act of civil disobedience brought on death threats, job loss, and financial hardship.

But Parks is often portrayed a tired seamstress who that night was swept up into a movement because of physical fatigue; when in reality, she was a seasoned activist, a force, and a role model.

In the 1930s she organized to free the Scottsboro Boys, and a decade later worked with the NAACP and Brothers of Sleeping Car Porters.

The exhibit, Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words brings together pieces from the Rosa Parks Collection that illuminate her life of activism as well as her every day life. From family photos, to her family bible, it would be hard to leave this showcase without a deeper understanding of an American hero.

For more information visit the Library of Congress website here.

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