Judy Woodruff
Judy Woodruff | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 20, 1946 Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Occupation | Broadcast journalist |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Known for | Anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour; White House correspondent for NBC News; co-anchor of CNN's Inside Politics and CNN WorldView |
Judy Carline Woodruff (born November 20, 1946) is a distinguished American broadcast journalist whose professional journey has encompassed local, network, cable, and public television since 1970. She held the positions of anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour until the conclusion of 2022. Throughout her career, Woodruff has reported on every U.S. presidential election and convention starting in 1976, conducted interviews with multiple world leaders, and served as a moderator for presidential debates.
Following her graduation from Duke University in 1968, Woodruff embarked on her career in local television news based in Atlanta. In 1976, she was appointed as NBC News' White House correspondent, a role she fulfilled for six years. She joined PBS in 1982, where she covered the White House for the PBS NewsHour (formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour) and hosted additional programs. In 1993, Woodruff transitioned to CNN to co-anchor Inside Politics and CNN WorldView alongside Bernard Shaw until his departure. After leaving CNN in 2005, she returned to PBS in 2006. In 2013, Woodruff and Gwen Ifill became the official anchors of the NewsHour, succeeding its founder Jim Lehrer. Following Ifill’s passing in 2016, Woodruff assumed the role of sole lead anchor. She announced her retirement from the anchor position effective December 30, 2022.
Early life and education
Born on November 20, 1946, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Woodruff is the daughter of William H. Woodruff, a chief warrant officer in the Army, and Anna Lee (née Payne) Woodruff. She has one sibling, a sister named Anita. Growing up as an army brat, Woodruff attended seven different schools from kindergarten through seventh grade due to her family’s frequent relocations. These moves included stops in Germany, Missouri, New Jersey, Taiwan, North Carolina, and ultimately Augusta, Georgia, where her father was stationed at Fort Gordon. She completed her high school education at the Academy of Richmond County in Augusta and won the Young Miss Augusta beauty pageant in 1963.
Woodruff began her higher education at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1964 with an initial focus on mathematics but shifted to political science after being inspired by a professor. After two years at Meredith, she transferred to Duke University in 1966. While at Duke, she participated actively in student government and was a member of the sorority Alpha Delta Pi. During her college years, she interned for Georgia Representative Robert Grier Stephens Jr., but due to prevalent gender biases at that time discouraging women from pursuing careers in Washington politics, she chose instead to focus on journalism during her senior year. Woodruff earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Duke University in 1968.
She served on Duke University's board of trustees from 1985 until 1997 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL) by Duke in 1998. Additionally, she holds honorary degrees from the University of Scranton (1991) and an honorary LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (2005).
From local television to White House correspondent
Woodruff launched her journalism career shortly after graduating from Duke by working as a secretary at Atlanta’s ABC affiliate (WQXI-TV) beginning in 1968. During her final six months there, she also delivered Sunday weather forecasts. After approximately eighteen months, she moved to Atlanta’s CBS affiliate WAGA-TV in 1970 as a reporter where she covered the Georgia State Legislature and anchored both noon and evening newscasts.
In 1975, Woodruff joined NBC as a general assignment reporter based out of Atlanta with coverage responsibilities spanning the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean region. Early in her tenure at NBC, she reported on Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign; previously she had covered his gubernatorial campaign in 1970. Following Carter's inauguration in 1977, Woodruff was appointed NBC's White House correspondent stationed in Washington D.C., a position she held throughout the Reagan administration until 1982. Subsequently, she served for one year as Chief Washington correspondent for NBC's Today Show.
In 1983, Woodruff transitioned to PBS where she became chief Washington correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, coinciding with its expansion to a one-hour format. Her responsibilities included political reporting, interviewing key figures, and acting as a substitute anchor when needed. The following year she took over as host of the weekly documentary series Frontline with Judy Woodruff after Jessica Savitch's passing but departed from that role in 1990 to dedicate more time to family and focus on her work with the NewsHour. Throughout her tenure at PBS, Woodruff covered every presidential convention and campaign and notably moderated the vice-presidential debate in 1988 between Senators Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen—the debate remembered for Bentsen’s iconic "You're no Jack Kennedy" retort.
CNN and subsequent years
In 1993, Woodruff departed from the NewsHour to join CNN, accepting an invitation from Tom Johnson after some initial reluctance. Her colleague Jim Lehrer lightheartedly joked about her transition to cable news. Starting in June 1993, Woodruff took on anchoring duties for CNN’s political talk program Inside Politics alongside Bernard Shaw and co-hosted the international news broadcast The World Today with Frank Sesno. Shaw replaced Sesno as co-host in May 1994. With the launch of CNN WorldView in 1995, Woodruff and Shaw served as its main anchors.
She remained co-anchor of WorldView until the show ended in 2001. Following Shaw’s retirement in February 2001, Woodruff assumed solo hosting responsibilities for Inside Politics, which was subsequently renamed Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics. During her tenure at CNN, she also co-anchored election coverage and programs including Live From... and CNN NewsStand. Woodruff was the sole anchor for the 1996 documentary series Democracy in America. Her reporting spanned significant events such as the 1995 World Conference on Women, President Nixon’s funeral, the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, the September 11 attacks, the Afghanistan War, the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, and the Iraq War.
Woodruff moderated three Republican primary debates and one Democratic debate during the 2000 presidential race, as well as a Democratic debate in 2004.
Her departure from CNN came in June 2005 when her contract ended, allowing her to concentrate on teaching, writing, and producing long-form television content. Later that year, she served as a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and taught courses on media and politics at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy in 2006. From 2006 to 2013, Woodruff hosted Bloomberg Television’s monthly series Conversations with Judy Woodruff, featuring interviews with notable personalities, and she anchored Bloomberg’s coverage of the 2006 midterm elections.
Return to PBS
In 2006, Woodruff joined MacNeil/Lehrer Productions to spearhead the multimedia initiative Generation Next: Speak Up. Be Heard, aimed at engaging Americans aged 16 to 25. This project encompassed a PBS documentary series, segments on NewsHour, NPR specials, and articles published in USA Today. Later that same year, she returned to The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as a special correspondent and was promoted to senior correspondent by February 2007. In this capacity, Woodruff contributed reports, conducted studio interviews, participated in political coverage teams, and occasionally took on anchoring duties.
December 2009 saw the program transition to a dual-anchor format under the title PBS NewsHour, with Lehrer rotating alongside Woodruff, Gwen Ifill, and Jeffrey Brown. When Lehrer retired as anchor in June 2011, a rotating anchor system was established featuring Woodruff, Ifill, Brown, Ray Suarez, and Margaret Warner. That year, Woodruff was lead reporter for the documentary Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.
In September 2013, Woodruff was appointed co-anchor of PBS NewsHour alongside Gwen Ifill during weekdays while anchoring solo on Fridays—marking the first time an American network broadcast was led by two women anchors. Together they covered significant political events such as presidential conventions, election nights, and State of the Union addresses. In February 2016, Woodruff and Ifill moderated the sixth Democratic presidential debate. After Ifill passed away in November 2016, Woodruff became sole anchor; this position was officially confirmed by PBS in March 2018. She also moderated the sixth Democratic debate during the 2020 presidential election cycle.
In 2017, The New York Times highlighted Woodruff’s composed delivery as a grounding force amid volatile news environments.
Woodruff announced in May 2022 that she would retire from anchoring NewsHour by year-end but would remain active as senior correspondent. Her final day as anchor was December 30, 2022.
Additional endeavors and recognitions
Woodruff is the author of This Is Judy Woodruff at the White House (Addison-Wesley, 1982), a book detailing her experiences in journalism. In 1990, she co-established the International Women's Media Foundation, an organization dedicated to empowering women in media worldwide, and has contributed as a member of both its board and advisory council.
Alongside her spouse, Al Hunt, Woodruff has been actively involved in supporting families impacted by spina bifida, a condition affecting their eldest son. They played a key role in organizing the Spina Bifida Association of America's annual fundraising roast, which was televised on C-SPAN from 1989 through 2008.
Woodruff has served as a trustee for numerous organizations such as the Newseum, Freedom Forum, National Museum of American History, Global Rights, Carnegie Corporation of New York, America's Promise, Urban Institute, The Duke Endowment, and the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford.
She holds membership in both the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a former participant of the Knight Commission.
In August 2023, Woodruff was honored with the Kettering Foundation's Katherine W. Fanning Fellowship in Journalism and Democracy.
Honors
| Year | Award | Organization | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Joan Shorenstein Barone Award | Radio and Television Correspondents' Association | Inaugural recipient |
| 1996 | News & Documentary Emmy Award for "Outstanding Instant Coverage of a Single Breaking News Story" | National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences | Awarded jointly with CNN for coverage of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing |
| 1998–99 | Futrell Award | Duke University | |
| 1995 | Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media | Newseum and University of South Dakota | Shared with husband Al Hunt |
| 1996 | CableACE Award for "Newscaster" | NCTA | Co-recipient with Bernard Shaw |
| 2003 | International Matrix Award | Association for Women in Communications | |
| 2003 | Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award | Radio Television Digital News Association | |
| 2009 | Duke Distinguished Alumni Award | Duke University | |
| 2010 | Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Television | Washington State University | |
| 2012 | Gaylord Prize for Excellence in Journalism and Mass Communication | University of Oklahoma | |
| 2016 | Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award | Women's Media Center | Shared honor with Gwen Ifill |
| 2016 | Foremother Award | National Center for Health Research | |
| 2017 | Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism | Poynter Institute | |
| 2017 | Radcliffe medal | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study | Posthumously shared with Gwen Ifill |
| 2017 | Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism | Arizona State University | Posthumously shared with Gwen Ifill |
| 2017 | Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award | Committee to Protect Journalists | First recipient |
| 2021 | Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication | Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication | Recognized alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, Eugene Robinson, and Bill Heyman |
| 2021 | Journalistic Integrity Award | Peabody Awards |
In 2003, Woodruff was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Personal life
Woodruff is married to columnist and former journalist Al Hunt. The couple lives in Washington, D.C., and also owns a secondary residence in Maryland. Their relationship began during a 1976 softball game that brought together journalists and staff from the Carter presidential campaign in Plains, Georgia. They tied the knot on April 5, 1980, at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Together, they have three children: Jeffrey (born 1981), Benjamin (1986), and Lauren (1989). Jeffrey was born shortly after Woodruff’s initial television appearance and encountered health issues following surgery in 1998, which led Woodruff to scale back her responsibilities at CNN. Their daughter Lauren was adopted from Korea during infancy.