Prof. Welma Campbell Mashinini Redd to Deliver Oration for Liberia’s 178th Independence Anniversary in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., June 24, 2025 - Award-winning filmmaker Prof. Welma Campbell Mashinini Redd will deliver the oration for Liberia's 178th Independence Anniversary in Washington, D.C., on July 19, 2025. She will speak on the topic "Liberia's Economic Renaissance: Building Bridges Between the United States and Liberia," reflecting the mutual foreign policy goals of the United States and Liberia in economic diplomacy.

Liberia’s Ambassador to the United States named Prof. Mashinini the Washington, D.C. 26th Day Orator for her work promoting US-Liberia and US-Africa relations through film, community service, and academia. In 1977, she also held the coveted title of Miss Liberia.

An immediate past President of the Liberian Community Association of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area, she also recently served as Co-Chair of the Liberian Studies Association’s 2025 Conference held at Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, where she is an Associate Professor in the School of Global Journalism and Communication. She also previously served as Secretary to the Morgan State University Council and serves on several school and departmental committees. She holds a BA degree in Sociology from the University of Liberia and an MFA( Master of Fine Arts) in Film and Electronic Media from American University in Washington, DC. She is currently a doctorate candidate in her field.
Professor Redd received Morgan University’s 2010 Bill of Rights/TransAfrica Award for co-producing and editing the documentary titled Botswana: An African Jewel on the remarkable development story of Botswana, which the World Bank recognized as the fastest-growing economy in the world for more than the 30 years (1975 – 2005). Professor Redd also produced and edited official documentaries commissioned by the African Ambassadors Group in Washington, DC, for the annual celebration of Africa Day, including Investing in Africa: A Win-Win Proposition and Securing Liberty, Forging Unity (2013), produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the African Union.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Professor Redd anchored the nightly television news at the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) and produced the television program Arts and Artists. She went on to head the Information Unit of the Mano River Union, a sub-regional economic organization comprising Liberia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone headquartered in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Professor Redd has received several honors, including from the Mayor of Soweto, South Africa (2006), for the heroic acts of her late husband, Tsietsi Mashinini, in protesting against the apartheid regime in South Africa as a student leader. She was also honored by the BW Harris Episcopal School Alumni Association with the Bishop George Browne Award for community service (2024) and the Rev. Emmanuel Johnson Award for education (2024). She received additional awards from the University of Liberia Alumni Chorus (2023), the United Bassa Organization of Liberia (2022), and the Liberian Community Associations of Staten Island, NY, and Washington, DC, for her exceptional service to the people of Liberia.