Jenice Armstrong is a newspaper columnist with more than 25 years of experience writing for such publications as the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, The Washington Post and The Associated Press. An award-winning writer, she also has had many appearances on local TV and radio.
She is the daughter of educators who migrated from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., where she grew up. Jenice graduated from Howard University where she majored in print journalism, edited a school newspaper and dreamed of uncovering the next Watergate. Jenice arrived in Philadelphia in 1991 and covered banking before moving on to tackle the city’s burgeoning hospitality and gaming industries for the Philadelphia Daily News. Her biggest story at the time came after she discovered that city officials knew that the city’s much ballyhooed $500-plus million Pennsylvania Convention Center was too small and the building hadn’t even opened yet. She later was tapped to head the paper’s business department and eventually gravitated to the city section where she worked as an assistant city editor before moving on to the features department.
In 2017, she moved to the Philadelphia Inquirer where she now serves as a member of the editorial board and writes an op-ed column. Her insightful commentary touches on everything from City Hall to gun violence. She is happiest when she is not actually in the newsroom but out in Philly’s diverse, under-served neighborhoods connecting with people and reporting on stories that otherwise would not get told. In 2017, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association awarded Jenice first place for commentary for a selection of her columns including a particularly fiery one she wrote when Donald Trump was elected called “Shame on Deplorable Trump Backers.” Armstrong is known for her blunt honesty as well as her bravery in speaking out against social injustice.