Gwen Ifill

Gwendolyn L. Ifill was the most trusted journalist in America and the first Black woman to host a nationally televised public affairs program when she became the anchor of PBS's Washington Week in 1999. She later co-anchored the PBS NewsHour alongside Judy Woodruff, becoming one of the most authoritative voices in broadcast journalism. She moderated two vice presidential debates — in 2004 and 2008 — with a directness and fairness that set the standard for political journalism.

Born in New York City in 1955, the daughter of a Barbadian-born AME minister, Ifill grew up in public housing and attended Simmons College. She worked at the Boston Herald American, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, and The New York Times before moving to television, where her intelligence, warmth, and no-nonsense style made her a natural on camera.

Ifill's 2009 book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, examined how a new generation of Black politicians were navigating race in American politics. She was known for asking the question that cut through political noise and reached the heart of the matter. She joined the ancestors on November 14, 2016, at 61, from endometrial cancer. The PBS NewsHour studio was renamed the Gwen Ifill Studio in her honor.