Michelle Matthews-Alexander, the head of multicultural marketing at General Motors, has dedicated her career to enhancing major corporations’ relationships with diverse communities.
Since joining the famous automaker in 2015, Matthews-Alexander has advocated for and helped spearhead Chevrolet’s Discover the Unexpected Journalism Fellowship.
In partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), Matthews-Alexander and Chevrolet have invested heavily in the future of Black journalism while simultaneously supporting students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
On Thursday, September 17, 2020, Matthews-Alexander will receive the NNPA 2020 National Leadership Award.
“I am truly excited and humbled on being selected to receive the 2020 NNPA National Leadership Award,” Matthews-Alexander exclaimed.
“Over the past five years, I have continued to value our partnership as well as the important role that the NNPA plays in the African American community.”
In her current role at General Motors, Matthews-Alexander leads a team of professionals that provides strategic marketing leadership and insights to drive focus and integration to support growth for GM brands, targeting crucial multicultural segments.
She’s also responsible for driving the strategic direction and providing guidance to identify marketing opportunities and develop solutions to improve diversity plans across all GM brands, including Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC.
Company officials have noted that Matthews-Alexander brings a wealth of multicultural automotive experience.
She’s spent more than seven years leading Ford and Lincoln’s multicultural public relations efforts specific to the African American market for UWG before joining GM.
Before that, Matthews-Alexander spent more than four years heading up the internal communications efforts at Nissan’s North American Engineering facility in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Michigan State University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism.
Matthews-Alexander was named one of the Michigan Chronicle’s 2017 Women of Excellence Award recipients, and she earned recognition as one of the Michigan Chronicle’s “40 under 40” awards recipients.
She received the 2016 Marketing to African Americans with Excellence (MAAX) Award.
Matthews-Alexander is a member of the ANA Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing, an organization comprised of senior-level, client-side marketers, media/publishers, research and data companies, advertising agencies, and trade associations.
The ANA Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing focuses on evolving and enhancing the effectiveness of how multicultural and inclusive marketing currently gets done.
Matthews-Alexander also has earned selection to Northwestern University’s Kellogg Chief Marketing Officer Program as part of its 2020 class.
Matthews-Alexander said she’s thrilled about the NNPA 2020 National Leadership Award and the relationship between the trade organization and GM.
“This partnership has allowed us to create opportunities that have brought forth impact within the community, and for that, I am forever thankful,” she exclaimed.
