Benjamin Bryant (born
January 13,
1977 to American parents in
Germany), once honored by the
McDonald’s Corporation as a
“
Black History
Maker of Tomorrow,” is an award-winning writer and Washington
public relations strategist, also known for an early sting as a
disc jockey and, later, journalist and program director with Majic
95.5 and K-Juice radio in
Austin, Texas.
’s career has also included corporate and public sector work in
public affairs, journalism, and education. <p>The highly
publicized start of Bryant’s career as a communicator came the
night of the
1996 Atlanta Olympic
Bombing. At the time an unpaid morning show intern and
copy-writer for
Austin’s
#2 radio station, Bryant made his on-air debut providing overnight
updates on the bombing on sister radio stations Majic 95.5. and Mix
94.7. A newspaper item on Bryant led to his being hired full-time
with American Radio Systems (the then-owners of the sister
stations).<p>Later that year, in a development in keeping
with the
cinderella-like start of his broadcasting career,
Bryant again found himself in exactly the right place at exactly
the right time to step into the top post at K-Juice radio,
following the sudden departure of the station’s former chief,
becoming,at 19, the youngest director of a mid/major market
commercial station in all of Texas.<p>Named one of the
Austin-American Statesman’s “Most Memorable” of 1996,
Bryant became a frequent guest speaker and host of community and
charity events, and was awarded two
Paul R.
Ellis Media Awards for his work
reporting on
heart
attack and
stroke
prevention and producing a series of public service announcements
targeted towards
African-American and
Hispanic women promoting a
wider-awareness of minority cardiac health trends.<p>In 1996
and 1997, Bryant served as host and emcee for Austin Metropolitan
Ministries' Crop Walk for Hunger, and, in 1997, was the Grand
Marshall for the city’s
Juneteenth parade. He went on to be profiled and
featured several additional times in the
Statesman and
Austin’s
XLent Entertainment supplemental. Bryant departed
both broadcasting and
Austin in 1998 to pursue independent writing projects
and transition into the
Washington D.C. public affairs
scene.<p>For the next three years, Bryant’s byline appeared
nationally and internationally in publications as diverse as the
Gazette Newspapers,
Chemie Anlangen und
Verfahren,
Pharmaceutical Manufacturer and Packing
Sourcer,
Felow, and even
Soap Opera Weekly.
During that time, Bryant represented
Honeywell International's POMS line of
manufacturing solutions around the world, heading campaigns based
from key locations across the globe. The early 2000s saw Bryant’s
writings published on all of the industrialized continents, and
translated into several languages.<p> Having successfully
made the transition from commercial broadcaster to published writer
and public relations strategist, Bryant turned his eyes to
the Beltway's #1
industry, the public sector, working with the
Department of Homeland
Security to promote the
U.S. Coast Guard's high-profile (and, at times, a
congressional football)
Deepwater Program.<p> Bryant is the
son of U.S. Army
Brigadier General Albert Bryant, Jr.
and
DA honored
Renée Bryant;
and brother of
Bronze Star-winning 1LT Albert-Francis "Paco" Bryant. (He is
also the nephew of
Emmy-winning author
Lori
Bryant-Woolridge.) <p> In addition to being named a
“
Black History
Maker of Tomorrow” and a double-recipient of the
Paul R.
Ellis Media Award, Bryant also has
received multiple Commander's Letters of Commendation and
Appreciation from the
Army and
the
Coast Guard,
and was a co-recipient of a PIP award for his work with
Honeywell. In 1994,
he was honored in Europe for Excellence in Writing and
Performance.<p> Bryant is currently consulting for the
U.S. Army’s
Global Command and
Control System project, working on his new novel,
Revisited
Sins, and finishing an as-yet-untitled play. Bryant continues
to promote
public health education through a variety of
community service activities and is currently revising a series of
articles on
bi-polar disorder.<p>
Benjamin
Bryant has also been published under the names Ben Bryant, Ben
Edward Bryant, and Benjamin Edward Bryant.[1928]