Cheryl Wills is an Emmy award-winning television personality for Spectrum News’ flagship national news network, New York 1 News, headquartered in New York City. Cheryl Wills has been with NY1 News since its launch in 1992 and is one of the station’s most recognizable journalists for breaking news and special coverage. Cheryl is the only journalist in the network’s 25+ year history to conduct a sit-down interview with The Secretary General of The United Nations: His Excellency Ban Ki-moon. She has also interviewed a sitting President: Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. Cheryl’s groundbreaking interviews earned her a prestigious Medal of Excellence from The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA).
Cheryl is the acclaimed author of four books about her family’s legacy during The Civil War: Die Free (2010), The Emancipation of Grandpa Sandy Wills (2015), Emancipated: My Family’s Fight for Freedom (2017), EMMA (2020) and Isn’t Her Grace Amazing: 25 Women Who Changed Gospel (2021-Harper Collins).
On March 25, 2011, Cheryl Wills made history as the first journalist invited to speak at the United Nations General Assembly Hall for The International Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade where she read passages from her book, Die Free which was broadcast live around the world on UNTV. Additionally, Cheryl has also touched the lives of tens of thousands of students across the country by reminding them about the importance of honoring family legacies.
Cheryl is most proud to be the Commander and Lifetime Descendant Member of the New York Chapter of the Sons and Daughters of the United States Colored Troops – a national organization of Civil War descendants who raise awareness about Black soldiers who served during The Civil War. She is a graduate of the prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.