Director of the Lubar Center to receive Headliner Award from Milwaukee Press Club

Derek Mosley, director of the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, will be honored with a Headliner Award by the Milwaukee Press Club at its Gridiron Awards event at The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee on Friday, May 12. 

Headliner Awards are presented annually to those who have made significant, positive contributions to Wisconsin and its residents. 

Mosley joined Marquette Law School in January after 20 years as a Milwaukee Municipal Court judge. He served as an assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County from 1995 to 2002 before being appointed by the Milwaukee Common Council to fill the vacancy in Branch 2 of the city’s Municipal Court starting on Aug. 1, 2002. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest African American to be appointed judge in the State of Wisconsin. In August 2004, he was first appointed Presiding Judge of the Milwaukee Municipal Court. 

A 1995 graduate of Marquette Law School, Mosley’s community engagement is not limited to the legal and philanthropic, as he has become a visible presence throughout Milwaukee. In his spare time, he routinely speaks both nationally and internationally about unconscious bias and Black history. Mosley is also a popular wedding officiant, having officiated more than 1,000 weddings, and a local Milwaukee foodie. He served as a 2022 James Beard Judge for the James Beard Foundation and recently began a regular feature on WUWM’s Lake Effect, “Monthly with Mosley,” where he discusses Milwaukee food and history. 

Since 1885, the Milwaukee Press Club has provided professional development and camaraderie to members of the press community from around the city and across the state of Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Press Club is rich in tradition and successful in its mission to provide meaningful professional opportunities for its members today. From one of the nation’s most eclectic and comprehensive collection of signatures from prominent politicians, journalists and other celebrities to some of the city’s most dynamic news-making events, the Milwaukee Press Club offers something all too rare in the media community today – a sense of history and place coupled with real-world professional value.