Meet Dr. Bertice Berry, PH. D

 Bertice Berry, PhD, is an award-winning sociologist, author, lecturer, and ordained Episcopal minister. Bertice is an adoptive mother and grandmother. She is the co-founder of The Institute for Story, a partnership with Hospice Savannah in Savannah, Georgia. For the past five years, the Institute for Story has hosted a conference of professionals and community leaders from around the world who have come to understand that when you tell a better story, you live a better life.
Berry has been named Comedian of The Year, Lecturer of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. She has published 14 best-selling books in both fiction and non-fiction and has won numerous awards and accolades for both her writing and presentations.
Berry has had her own nationally syndicated television show and has hosted, interviewed and made numerous television, documentary and radio appearances on a variety of diverse venues including The Tonight Show, Oprah Winfrey, Between the Lions, Crossfire, 20-20, NPR, PBS, Comedy Central and CNN. She is the co-host of the podcast, Doing Hopeful Things and is the writer of a soon to be announced musical produced by Broadway Tony winners Jay and Cindy Gutterman.
Berry has used her unique gifts and talents as a writer and ghost writer for others on a wide range of topics including race and gender issues, sociological studies, stratification, healthcare reform, humor, spirituality, sexuality, slavery and the abolitionist movement, weight loss and wellness, relationships, servant leadership, transformational leadership, belonging and love.
Berry was honored by Savannah Technical College when they named their Change and Transformation classrooms after her and has been awarded over 10 honorary doctorates. She earned her own doctoral degree from Kent State University at the age of 26.  Berry was awarded Kent State's Oscar Ritchie Distinguished Alumni Award and still sees one of her most fulfilling achievements and roles in life as that of mother to her 5 adopted children.
She was recently awarded The Cisco Culture Champion Award and has been ordained into the Diaconate in the Episcopal Church

During the Global pandemic of 2020, Berry was awarded The Savannah, College of Art and Designs Community Champion for making and distributing over 30,000 masks to hospitals, care givers, prisons, clinics and essential workers. From that time until now, she has provided a story “ministry” on social media where she shares a personal story each day. These stories, educate, inform and uplift. “We are wired for narrative and when you hear a story, your heart and mind naturally want to connect to your own story,” Berry says.
While Berry’s daily followers include 150,000 listeners on Facebook, 42, 000 on Instagram, 5,852 on YouTube, her daily stories reach millions and are often been featured on Redditt and have been widely circulated in classrooms, conferences, churches and corporate meetings. When the American Psychiatric Association called for permission to share one of her stories at their annual conference and asked how much it would cost, Berry told them that they were doing the heavy lifting and she would do all that she could to support. “It’s yours to use.” She told them. As a gift, they purchased and named a star after her.
Bertice lives and works in Coastal Georgia and while she lives with the impact and effects of Multiple Sclerosis, Berry believes that even on her worse days, she still has something to give, because as her mother would say, “If you ain’t dead, you ain’t done.”