People, Locations, Episodes

Thu, 09.29.1955

Gwen Ifill, Journalist and Moderator born

Gwen Ifill was born on this date in 1955. She was a Black journalist.

She was born in Queens, New York City, the daughter of O. Urcille Ifill, Sr., a Methodist preacher, and Eleanor IFill. She has a sister and brother, Maria Ifill Philip and Roberto. Her cousin is Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund.  In 1977, she graduated from Simmons College in Boston, where she majored in communications. Through an internship, she got her first hands-on experience as a journalist.

She worked for the Boston Herald, the Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC, and PBS. Ifill became a moderator of the PBS program Washington Week in Review in October 1999 and is also the senior correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.  On October 5, 2004, she moderated the vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards.  In 2008, she moderated the vice presidential debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin.

Ifill served on the Harvard Institute of Politics board, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Museum of Television and Radio, and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Ifill also received 15 honorary degrees.

2016 she moderated a presidential primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Ifill was also the best-selling author of The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. According to PBS, Gwen Ifill, one of the most prominent political journalists in the country, died on November 14, 2016. She was 61.

to be a Journalist or Reporter