Meet DocM.A.C.
DocM.A.C. is short for Dr. Margena A. Christian, owner and founder of DocM.A.C. Write Consulting, which provides professional development, editing, proofreading and writing services as such is related to management, education and personal development. In November 2018, she founded DocM.A.C. Write Publishing ("Leading People to the Promised Land in Publishing")
The media scholar is a Senior Lecturer in English (Professional Writing) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and served as Assistant Director of the First-Year Writing Program (Spring 2018-Spring 2019). She was chosen by The HistoryMakers as a 2022-2023 Faculty Innovations in Pedagogy & Teaching Fellow, and she was selected for the 2022-2023 OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship at the University of Illinois System. In 2021, Dr. Christian was selected by the UIC Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Blacks (CCSB) as a Black History Maker.
She was awarded the 2019-2020 Teaching Recognition Program Award and the 2017 Lecturers' Distinguished Teaching Award for English Studies, both at UIC. Courses that she instructs include English and Professional Writing classes (Introduction to Academic Writing, Academic Writing 1, Media and Professional Writing, Writing for Digital and New Media, Advanced Professional Writing and Editing/Publishing). Dr. Christian, a founding faculty member of UIC's Professional Writing minor, developed and designed the research institution's inaugural Writing for Digital and New Media class in Spring 2016 and the inaugural Advanced Professional Writing class in Fall 2016. She also teaches in the Honors College at UIC where she's instructed, developed and designed a seminar course called Writing About the African American Media and core courses titled Reporting While Black: Why Who Controls the Narrative Matters and Ya Dig! Hallelujer! African American Life, Language and Lessons Through the Cinema and Artistic Praxis of Spike Lee and Tyler Perry. UIC college seniors have conducted independent research under her leadership as well.
The education consultant has also been an adjunct English professor since 1997 with the City Colleges of Chicago. A graduate of Cardinal Ritter College Preparatory (CRCP) High School, the St. Louis native completed a doctorate in Adult and Continuing Education at National Louis University (NLU). In 2019, she was inducted into CRCP's Inaugural Hall of Fame. Dr. Christian also holds a master's degree from NLU in Interdisciplinary Studies, Curriculum and Instruction. Her master's thesis examined Learning Styles and its effects on inner-city students at private schools. In 2010, she was named a recipient of NLU's Distinguished Alumni Award and formerly taught undergraduate and online classes there in English and Effective Speaking, along with graduate courses in the M.S. in Written Communication program. Dr. Christian has a B.A. from St. Louis University in Mass Communications (concentration journalism) with a certification in Creative and Professional Writing.
Her dissertation is titled, John H. Johnson: A Historical Study on the Re-Education of African Americans in Adult Education Through the Selfethnic Liberatory Nature of Magazines. She defended on April 16, 2013, and graduated June 2013. As stated by dissertation chair Dr. Scipio A.J. Colin III: "Her research regarding John H. Johnson's use of his publications as modes of informal learning in combating the impact of sociocultural and intellectual racism on African Americans provides us with a unique interpretive frame that significantly expands our understanding of the intersection of education and the media. Dr. Christian's study is an excellent example of the value and utility of historical inquiry." She is the author of Empire: The House That Johnson H. Johnson Built (The Life & Legacy of Pioneering Publishing Magnate), an extension of her research, which was released nationwide on November 6, 2018 (DocM.A.C. Write Publishing, "Leading People to the Promised Land in Publishing").
She is a former Senior Editor and Senior Writer for EBONY, the pioneering African-American monthly publication founded in 1945 by late publishing magnate John H. Johnson, founder of Chicago's Johnson Publishing Company (JPC). Dr. Christian was the editor of Elevate, a section which addresses health, wellness and spirituality. She also wrote entertainment, including helped to inaugurate the EBONY Retrospective, which documented Black history through the examination of culturally groundbreaking moments and/or milestones, most notably in areas such as film, TV or music. "Looking back doesn't mean you can't move forward. It just shows you know where your roots were planted. History must be preserved and respected, for it helps us to make sense of the present. That was the purpose of EBONY Retrospective and Legend."
Dr. Christian joined the premier publication, noted for targeting men and women of color, in 2009 as Senior Writer. Before that time, she was Features Editor at EBONY's sister publication, Jet, the historic weekly news magazine. The former elementary language arts teacher was hired by Johnson in 1995 to be an Assistant Editor and worked closely under his guidance until his death in 2005. During her tenure, Dr. Christian also served as Associate Editor where in 2003 she wrote Tyler Perry's first-ever magazine cover for a national publication. In 2008, Perry requested that she pen his cover story for EBONY, and, in 2020, she wrote the March cover story about Perry for EBONY. Jet commemorative issues she wrote include Luther Vandross, Coretta Scott King and Bernie Mac. Throughout her tenure, stories were written about more than celebrities. She's covered news, education, relationships, health, medicine, finance, parenting, spirituality, religion, census and fashion. (JET 1995-2009) (EBONY 2009-2014)
One of her many distinctions includes being the only editor in the history of JPC to have written for EBONY, JET, EBONY Man, EBONY South Africa, EBONY Fashion Fair and EBONY.com. Dr. Christian worked closely with late fashion pioneer Eunice W. Johnson, creator and director of the EBONY Fashion Fair, the world's largest traveling fashion show, from 1995 to 2009, documenting coverage of all the shows in JET magazine. She also compiled the history for EBONY Fashion Fair, JPC's pioneering traveling fashion show and wrote Mrs. Johnson's obit for EBONY.
Dr. Christian spearheaded JPC's 2009 ground coverage following the untimely death of the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Her on-camera work includes appearances on E!, The Biography Channel/Tyler Perry, CNN and TV One. On May 30, 2014, her position as Senior Editor was eliminated, denoting Dr. Christian as the last editor to work with John H. Johnson who remained at the company he founded. In 2018, she was commissioned by Oxford University Press to write essays for the June 2019 American National Biography about John H. Johnson and his wife, Eunice W. Johnson. Most recently she penned the March 2020 EBONY cover story on Tyler Perry.
She co-authored the memoir, Wally, Where'd You Get Those Glasses? My Life Through the Lens of Parliament, Pendergrass and Prince. It was released nationwide on November 12, 2019 (Lil Gater's Publishing). In film, she served as a Digital Kickstarter Producer for Hair Love, the 2019 movie that won Best Animated Short Film at the 92nd Annual Academy Awards.
Currently, Dr. Christian is writing the authorized biography about Sylvia Moy, who was Motown's first female in-house songwriter and producer. The work is titled It's No Wonder: The Life and Music of Motown's Sylvia Moy. (Hachette, Spring 2025)
Research interests: historical (grounded in African Diaspora), biographical, African American history, Black popular culture, and the role of the media in education
