Denise Rolark Barnes

Denise Rolark Barnes is the publisher and second-generation owner of The Washington Informer, succeeding her father, the late Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, who founded the newspaper in 1964.

The Washington Informer is a multi-media organization serving the African American community in the Washington metropolitan area. Denise is also president of Washington Informer Charities, a non-profit organization that promotes 21st-century literacy and sponsors writing competitions, internships, scholarships and other events promoting African American history, culture, and literature.

Rolark Barnes Rolark Barnes is past chair National Newspaper Publishers Association – the Black Press of America. She serves on the boards of several local non-profit, community and municipal organizations, including the Washington Convention and Sports Authority (Events DC), the DC Martin Luther King Holiday Commission, National Newspaper Publishers Association Fund, the Maryland, Delaware, DC Press Association, and the
Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the Pan African Collective. She is also a member of Leadership Greater Washington, as well as an inductee in the D.C. Hall of Fame.

She is a native Washingtonian and a Ward 8 resident. She is married and the mother of two adult sons.