Vance Brinkley

Vance Brinkley is a digital journalist based out of Washington, DC that specializes in the realms of music, sports, gaming, and culture. He has earned several bylines in publications including The Undefeated, OkayPlayer, Bandcamp, REVOLT, and SB Nation.

Before his emergence as a writer, he covered the local news as a blogger for WPB Radio, co-hosted their primetime show FM Radio 101, interned for The Mellow Mix, and was a music analyst for The Live Wired Morning Show. Vance also covered music as a reporter at WEAA for the show Strictly Hip Hop. During his tenure, he helped increase the popularity of the show by managing the show's social media, covering local concerts, writing articles on the website, and doing interviews with artists including Lupe Fiasco, Big KRIT, and Schoolboy Q.

Following his college years, Vance became a national correspondent for AllHipHop and began developing his reporting chops covering events like Made In America and AfroPunk for the music blog. He left AHH in 2015 to help develop his writing voice and expand the variety of topics he would later cover with new opportunities. This would include interviewing the first Black Female Olympic Swimmer for ESPN's Andscape (formerly the Undefeated) in 2016 and interviewing Anderson .Paak for OkayPlayer. Vance was also a writer for SB Nation's Miami Hurricanes Division, State of the U.

In 2019, Vance covered local stories in St. Louis as a general reporter for local newspaper The Northsider and also became an audio producer for SiriusXM's Sports Deskk that same year. In 2021, he became a Digital Producer for the USA Today Network, where he succeeded in creating social campaigns for groundbreaking exclusives, breaking stories, and the 2022 Mid-Term Election. He is now a News Producer for GrayTV's National show Local News Live.

Vance received the "Outstanding Alumni" award from his alma mater Morgan State University in 2014 for his work in entertainment media and academia. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, A member of the Baltimore Association of Black Journalists, a member of the Online News Association, and earned a Master's at Bowie State University for Organizational Communications in 2021.