Wednesday, 17 June 2009
SLA Closing General Session and Membership Meeting
12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Judy Woodruff has covered politics and other news as a broadcast journalist for more than three decades at CNN, NBC and PBS. She is current a senior correspondent for PBS' News Hour with Jim Lehrer and is the editor of the show's 2008 election coverage.
In early 2007, Woodruff concluded initial reporting and production, along with MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, on "Generation Next: Speak Up. Be Heard." "Generation Next" is a project to interview American young people and report on their views, and included an hourlong documentary aired on many PBS stations in January 2007, a series of reports on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, reports on NPR and in USA Today, and partnerships with Yahoo! and Film Your Issue. A second hour-long "Generation Next" documentary is schedule to air on PBS stations in late 2007.
Through fall 2006, Judy served as a visiting professor at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, teaching a weekly seminar course on media and politics. In the fall of 2005, she was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, where she led a study group for students on contemporary issues in journalism.
For 12 years, Woodruff served as anchor and senior correspondent for CNN, anchoring the weekday political program, Inside Politics. What began as the nation's first program devoted exclusively to politics, Inside Politics established a reputation as a must-watch show for political insiders and political junkies around the country. Woodruff shared anchor duties with Bernard Shaw for eight years, until 2001, when Shaw retired from CNN.
At CNN Woodruff participated in special political coverage that included moderating
debates and town halls, and anchoring on election nights. She also anchored breaking news and developing stories, including the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and the Olympic Park bombing in 1996.
Before joining CNN in 1993, Woodruff was the chief Washington correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS. From 1984 to 1990, she anchored public television's award-winning weekly documentary series, Frontline with Judy Woodruff. During the 1988 presidential campaign, Woodruff moderated the vice presidential debate between Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen.
Woodruff moved to Washington, D.C. in 1977, when she became NBC News' White House correspondent, covering both the Carter and Reagan administrations until 1982. Her book, This is Judy Woodruff at the White House, published in 1982 by Addison-Wesley, documents her experiences as a political journalist. From 1982 to 1983, she was NBC's Today Show chief Washington correspondent.
In Atlanta, Woodruff gained political reporting experience working at a local CBS
affiliate, WAGA-TV, from 1970 to 1974. She became a correspondent at WAGA-TV, reported on the state legislature, and anchored the noon and evening news.
Following her job at WAGA-TV, Woodruff became a general assignment reporter based in Atlanta for NBC News. There, she reported on her first presidential campaign, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter's successful run for the White House in 1976.
CNN received the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award in the Continuing Coverage category for its coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, anchored by Woodruff and Aaron Brown. In 1997, Woodruff won the News and Documentary Emmy Award for outstanding instant coverage of a single breaking news story for CNN's coverage of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. In 1996, Woodruff and Bernard Shaw won the CableACE Award for Best Anchor Team for their work on Inside Politics. In 1995, Woodruff won the CableACE for Best Newscaster. In 1995, the Freedom Forum awarded Woodruff and her journalist husband, Al Hunt, the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism.
In October 2003, Woodruff received the International Matrix Award from the Association for Women in Communications. Also in 2003, Woodruff was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and honored by the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation with the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award. In 1994, Woodruff became the first recipient of the National Women's Hall of Fame President's 21 st Century Award. That same year, she and her husband Al Hunt were named "Washingtonians of the Year" by Washingtonian magazine for their fundraising work to fight spina bifida. And in 1986, for Woodruff's series on national defense issues for the NewsHour was awarded the first Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for excellence in journalism by the Washington Radio and Television Correspondents' Association.
Woodruff is a founding co-chair of the International Women's Media Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting and encouraging women in communication industries worldwide. She serves on the boards of trustee of the Freedom Forum and Global Rights: Partners for Justice and in 2005 became a member of The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and the Board of the National Museum of American History. Woodruff is a graduate of Duke University, where she is a trustee emerita.
Woodruff and Hunt, who is the Washington executive editor for Bloomberg News, have three children and live in Washington.
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