W&M names NewsHour's Ifill 2015 Hunter Andrews Fellow
Renowned news anchor, journalist and author Gwen Ifill has been named the 2015 Hunter B. Andrews Distinguished Fellow in American Politics at William & Mary. She will be on campus March 30-31 to meet with students, faculty and staff.
The Andrews Fellowship was created in 1998 by friends of the former state senator and William & Mary alumnus who died in 2005. He served on the William & Mary Board of Visitors from 2003-2005.
“Gwen Ifill is one of our nation’s most respected and trusted sources of news these days,” said President Taylor Reveley. “Her contributions to journalism make her an ideal Andrews Fellow. We are delighted to welcome her to campus.”
Ifill is known by many as co-anchor of PBS NewsHour. She joined PBS in 1999 and currently serves as managing editor in addition to her duties as co-anchor. The show, which is seen by over 4 million weekly viewers, airs on public broadcast channels nationwide. Ifill is also seen weekly on Washington Week where she serves as both managing editor and moderator.
A native of New York, Ifill has been a mainstay in Washington media circles for more three decades. She has covered seven presidential campaigns and has moderated the vice presidential debates twice, most recently in 2008. Ifill began her journalism career at the Boston Herald American. She later reported for the Baltimore Evening Sun, served as White House correspondent for The New York Times and as a local and national political reporter for The Washington Post. Ifill transitioned to broadcast journalism in the mid-nineties. She was chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News before joining PBS in 1999. Ifill is also the best-selling author of The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
She has been honored for her work by the Radio and Television News Directors Association, Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center, The National Association of Black Journalists, Ohio University, and was included in Ebony Magazine's list of 150 Most Influential African Americans. Ifill most recently received the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism.
In addition to her work in journalism, she also serves on the board of the News Literacy Project, on the advisory board of the Committee to Protect Journalists and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ifill is a native of New York. She graduated from Simmons College in Boston with a degree in communications. Over the course of her career, she has received more than 20 honorary doctorates.
Each year, the Andrews Fellowship program brings a notable journalist, politician or scholars to campus to talk with students, faculty and staff. Previous fellows have included, for instance , political scholar and analyst Larry Sabato; former Washington Post columnist David Broder; Tom Foley (D-Wash.), 49th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis (D-Ga.); journalist, author and Supreme Court scholar Linda Greenhouse; former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) and former Governor Gerald Baliles (D-Va.). The 2014 Fellow was former U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.).
