Dr. Costley White researches politics, social change, and identity in media. Her book, The Branding of Right-Wing Activism: The News Media and the Tea Party (Oxford, 2018) examines the rise of the Tea Party in online, print, broadcast, and cable news. Previously she worked as a journalist on an Emmy-nominated team at NOW on PBS (formerly NOW with Bill Moyers) and a New York City Teaching Fellow. She is currently a 2020-2021 Whiting Public Engagement Fellow.

In her local community, Costley White is active in social justice organizing and advocacy. She also consults on documentary films and has served the MacArthur Foundation as an external advisor in journalism and media. In 2007 the National Association of Black Journalists and United Nations awarded her a reporting fellowship to Senegal. She has also received the University of Pennsylvania Women of Color at Penn Award and served as a White House intern on the Obama administration’s Broadcast Media team.

Costley White's writing and commentary on topics such as race, social movements, news, and politics has appeared in Vice, National Public Radio, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Root, Huffington Post, BBC, Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Quartz, Gizmodo, Buzzfeed and in numerous radio and TV interviews. As a Fontaine Fellow, she received her PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and is a proud Swarthmore College alum.