Gwen Ifill

Background

Gwendolyn L. Ifill was a journalist from Queens, New York. She was born on September 29, 1955, as the fifth of six children. Ifill was raised in New England, where her father worked as a pastor. As she approached her teenage years, the family settled in Massachusetts, and she attended Springfield Central High School until her graduation in 1973. She then enrolled at Simmons College, now Simmons University, to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.

Ifill landed a job at the “Baltimore Evening Sun,” where she worked for three years, from 1981 to 1984. She was later hired by “The Washington Post” but left after she was denied the opportunity to cover Capitol Hill. Several months later, Ifill landed a job at “The New York Times” and covered the White House from 1991 to 1994. She appeared on television for the first time in 1994, working as the network’s Capitol Hill reporter before becoming the first Black woman to host a national political talk show in 1999. She was made a senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour and appeared on several news shows, including “Charlie Rose,” “Inside Washington,” and “Face the Nation.”

In 2004, Ifill moderated the vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards, North Carolina Senator, making her the first African-American woman to do so. On October 2, 2008, she was also the moderator for the debate between the Governor of Alaska and Delaware Senator Joe Biden. Sadly, Ifill passed away from breast and endometrial cancer on November 14, 2016. She was subsequently honored by her colleagues and other prominent personalities, including then-president Barack Obama.