About Rita Omokha
Awarding-Winning Journalist, Author, & Professor
Rita Omokha is an award-winning Nigerian-American journalist in New York City. She was born and spent her early childhood in Benin City, Edo State.
The author of the critically acclaimed book, Resist: How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America, her research, writing, and commentary on politics, race, and vulnerable communities are regularly featured in several publications and outlets, including CNN, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, ELLE, Glamour, The Guardian, MSNBC, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and WIRED.
She's an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she graduated at the top of the 2020 class, receiving some of the institution’s highest awards, including the Pulitzer Prize Traveling Fellowship.
During her time at Columbia, she served as co-president of the African Student Association, which spotlighted the intersection of journalism, press freedom, and the African diaspora. She previously worked in digital media for CNN, NBC, and Viacom and served in AmeriCorps in 2013.
"As a first-generation immigrant and Ivy League graduate, I know what it means to walk into rooms you were never told belonged to you. I also know what it feels like to fight your way toward excellence without a roadmap, and to succeed, not because the path was clear, but because I refused to let the lack of one stop me.
I created Her Climb for the girls who remind me of me: ambitious, brilliant, and underestimated. This program is about giving them what too many of us had to find by chance: confidence, connection, and community. It's about making the climb less lonely and the summit more accessible.
My commitment to service was cemented in 2013, when I served in AmeriCorps and was placed at The Father’s Heart Ministries, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which provides a soup kitchen, food pantry, and community programs. That year shaped my understanding of community work, and I’ve remained connected ever since, helping guide programs and operations alongside a small team of brilliant women who lead the organization's work for families across the city.
My connection to our four tracks is personal. I attended the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, where I first learned how much confidence it takes for girls to claim space in STEM classrooms. Journalism was my first love and remains my career. Creative work has shaped me as an author and now guides my move into film and television. My foundation in business comes from 10 years in advertising and consumer products across CNN, NBC, Viacom, and a branding and PR firm I founded in 2016. I also completed Northeastern University’s five-year business program, which grounded me early in strategy, management, and real-world application through full-time roles at General Electric and Scholastic.
During that time, I studied abroad at The American University of Rome, focusing on consumer marketing and global perspectives on media and culture. These tracks reflect the worlds that influenced my path and the worlds I want our girls to enter with preparation and authority.
That foundation has built the discipline and perspective that guide me. In 2020, I graduated at the top of my class at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (where I’m now an adjunct professor), earning several awards, including the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. As an award-winning journalist and the author of a critically acclaimed book, Resist, on the power of young people in American democracy, I’ve spent years telling stories about what young people can do when they’re seen, supported, and believed in.
Now, Her Climb ensures they don’t just shape the future—they own their place in it."