All-American Presidential Forums on PBS" Moderated by Tavis Smiley

THE JOURNALISTS

Michel Martin
National Public Radio

Michel Martin is the host of Tell Me More, a one-hour daily NPR news talk show that made its national premiere on April 30, 2007 on public radio stations around the country.

Martin, who came to NPR in January 2006 to develop the program, has spent more than 25 years as a journalist-first in print with major newspapers and then in television. Tell Me More marks her debut as a full-time public radio show host.

While working on the development of the new show, she also served as contributor and substitute host for NPR newsmagazines and talk shows, including Talk of the Nation and News & Notes.

Martin joined NPR from ABC News, where she served as correspondent for Nightline from 1996 to 2006, reporting on such subjects as the Congressional budget battles, the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, racial profiling and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She also contributed to numerous programs and specials, including the network's award-winning coverage of September 11, a documentary on the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy, a critically acclaimed AIDS special and reports for the series America in Black and White.

She reported for the ABC newsmagazine Day One, winning an Emmy for her coverage of the international campaign to ban the use of landmines, and was a regular panelist on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She received three additional Emmy nominations, including one with NPR's Robert Krulwich, at the time an ABC contributor as well, for an ABC News program examining children's racial attitudes. She also hosted the series Life 360, an innovative program partnership between Oregon Public Broadcasting and Nightline, which aired on public television stations across the country.

Before joining ABC, Martin covered state and local politics for The Washington Post and national politics and policy at The Wall Street Journal, where she was White House correspondent. She has also been a regular panelist on the PBS series Washington Week and a contributor to NOW with Bill Moyers.

She has been honored by numerous organizations, including the Candace Award for Communications from The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Joan Barone Award for Excellence in Washington-based National Affairs/Public Policy Broadcasting from the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association and a 2002 Silver Gavel Award, given by the American Bar Association.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Martin graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1980 and has done graduate work at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. She is married to Washington attorney William (Billy) Martin and their blended family includes two older daughters and twin toddlers.