Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill began her journalism career at the Boston Herald American after being told by an editor, in a letter meant for someone else, that the paper wasn't ready to hire a Black reporter — a note she kept for the rest of her career as motivation. She went on to report for the Baltimore Evening Sun, the Washington Post, and the New York Times before moving into broadcast journalism.

In 1999, Ifill became moderator and managing editor of PBS's Washington Week, the first Black woman to host a major political talk show on American television. She later co-anchored PBS NewsHour alongside Judy Woodruff, forming the first all-female team to anchor a national nightly news broadcast in the United States.

Ifill moderated two US vice-presidential debates, in 2004 and 2008, becoming the first Black journalist to moderate a nationally televised vice-presidential debate. Known for incisive, fair questioning of political figures across the spectrum, she authored the bestselling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama and remained one of the most respected figures in American political journalism until her death from cancer in 2016.