Gwen Ifill will deliver Wake Forest’s 2013 commencement address on Monday, May 20.
The moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week” and senior correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour” has covered six presidential campaigns and moderated two vice presidential debates. She is also the best-selling author of “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.”
“Her record of achievement as a journalist and author, a significant career of reporting on current events both national and international and commitment to straightforward dialogue mean so much to the Wake Forest community,” President Nathan O. Hatch said. “Ms. Ifill’s career provides an example for young women and men at Wake Forest, and gives her great currency with our graduates, their families, and our faculty and staff.”
Ifill
Before joining PBS in 1999, Ifill was chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a local and national political reporter for The Washington Post. She reports on a wide range of issues from foreign affairs to U.S. politics and policies, interviewing national and international newsmakers. Her journalistic work has been honored by the Radio and Television News Director’s Association, Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center, Ebony Magazine and Boston’s Ford Hall Forum.
Woo
She currently serves on the boards of the News Literacy Project, the Committee to Protect Journalists and she is a fellow with the American Academy of Sciences. A native of New York City, Ifill graduated from Simmons College in Boston.
Also joining Wake Forest for commencement weekend will be Baccalaureate speaker Dr. Carolyn Y. Woo, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States.
Both ceremonies are ticketed events reserved for graduates, their families and guests and are not open to the general public.
