About Sonya Hollins
Sonya Bernard-Hollins is an award-winning journalist, author, and CEO of Season Press LLC, a publishing and editorial consulting firm in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her Community Voices magazine highlights positive news and inspiring stories by girls of color. Season Press LLC has helped produce nearly 200 self-published authors whose works span from topics of climate change to career exploration for youth.
Sonya’s passion for hidden African American history has led to the publication of local history books co-produced with her husband, Sean. They include Here I Stand: One City’s Musical History (Battle Creek, Michigan), Benjamin Losford and His Handy Dandy Clippers, Small Beginnings: The Photographic Journey Through the Life of Merze Tate, and Little Eddie Goes to Carnegie Hall. Her dedication to sharing the life of Merze Tate inspired the naming of Western Michigan University’s Merze Tate College of Education.
Such publications as Black Enterprise Magazine, the Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio), Battle Creek Enquirer, the Kalamazoo Gazette (Mlive), Business Insight, The Other Side, and Southwest Michigan Tribune have featured her work as an award-winning journalist and freelance writer.
Sonya’s passion as a journalist and founder of the Merze Tate Explorers has led to such honors as the Mary Sutton Leadership Award (Michigan Afterschool Partnership), Velma Laws Clay Vanguard Award (Sojourner Truth Institute-Battle Creek, Michigan), Vanguard Award (NAACP-Kalamazoo), Gayle Hoogstraten Arts Leadership Award for Education (Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo), William H. Spurgeon III Award for Leadership (Boy Scouts-Michigan), Mary McLeod Bethune Community Service Award (Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.- Kalamazoo), Outstanding Community Leader Award (Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.-Kalamazoo), A. Philip Randolph Association Community Leader Award (Battle Creek Chapter), American Business Women’s Association Business Woman of the Year (Battle Creek Chapter), Substance Abuse and Prevention Council’s Leader of the Year (Albion), and Western Michigan University/Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Focus Program Alumna of the Year.
Her work as a reporter also earned her a Column Writer of the Year award from the Michigan Press Association and various other awards from the Associated Press and Gannett News.
She is a graduate of Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Western Michigan University. Sonya and her husband, Sean, have four children and currently live in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
