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Judy Woodruff

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Judy Woodruff

About Judy @judywoodruff

Judy Woodruff is a senior correspondent and the former anchor and managing editor of the PBS News Hour. She has covered politics and other news for five decades at NBC, CNN and PBS.

At PBS from 1983 to 1993, she was the chief Washington correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. From 1984 – 1990, she also anchored PBS' award-winning documentary series, "Frontline with Judy Woodruff." Moving to CNN in 1993, she served as anchor and senior correspondent for 12 years; among other duties, she anchored the weekday program "Inside Politics." She returned to the News Hour in 2007, and in 2013, she and the late Gwen Ifill were named the first two women to co-anchor a national news broadcast. After Ifill's death, Woodruff was named sole anchor.

In 2011, Judy was the anchor and reporter for the PBS documentary "Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime." And in 2007, she completed an extensive project on the views of young Americans, titled "Generation Next: Speak Up. Be Heard." Two hour-long documentaries aired on PBS, along with a series of reports on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR, in USA Today and on Yahoo News.

From 2006 – 2013, Judy anchored a monthly program for Bloomberg Television, "Conversations with Judy Woodruff." In 2006, she was a visiting professor at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. In 2005, she was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

At NBC News, Woodruff was White House correspondent from 1977 to 1982. For one year after that she served as NBC's Today Show chief Washington correspondent. She wrote the book, This is Judy Woodruff at the White House, published in 1982 by Addison-Wesley. Her reporting career began in Atlanta, Georgia, where she covered state and local government.

Woodruff is a founding co-chair of the International Women's Media Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting and encouraging women in journalism and communication industries worldwide. She serves on the boards of trustee of the Freedom Forum, The Duke Endowment and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and is a director of Public Radio International and the National Association to End Homelessness. She is a former member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a former director of the National Museum of American History and a former trustee of the Urban Institute.

Judy is a graduate of Duke University, where she is a trustee emerita.

She is the recent recipient of an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Radcliffe Medal, the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism, the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism from Arizona State University.

She is the recipient of more than 25 honorary degrees.

Judy lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, journalist Al Hunt, and they are the parents of three children: Jeffrey, Benjamin and Lauren.

Full Bio

Judy’s Recent Stories

Nation Oct 05

Advocates concerned about workers with disabilities earning below minimum wage

Even with the low unemployment rate in the United States, the situation for people with disabilities is much tougher. Only about 20% of them have a job and some who do are paid less than the federal minimum wage. After…

Nation Sep 27

Political theorist promotes ‘Our Common Purpose’ plan to reinvent American democracy

A new Pew Research Center study confirmed what you might already suspect: Americans feel intense dissatisfaction with the way our government currently works and a growing distaste for both political parties. One of the main voices calling for sweeping change…

Politics Sep 13

Pennsylvania Democrats discuss nation’s political divisions and their feelings for Biden

Over the summer, Judy Woodruff listened in as Iowa Republicans discussed their support for former President Trump following his indictments, the state of the country and what can be done to move forward. For a different perspective, Judy heard from…

Nation Aug 30

The connections between decline of local news and growing political division

Judy Woodruff recently examined how the loss of thousands of local newspapers across the country is depriving communities of some of the glue that holds them together and fueling division. She now looks at how some news outlets are managing…

Politics Aug 14

Conservative retired judge says Trump ‘corroded and corrupted American democracy’

An influential group of Republican legal voices called for a Jan. 2024 trial date to be set for Donald Trump for his attempt to overturn the presidential election. The group included former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Michael Luttig, a…

Nation Aug 02

How the loss of local newspapers fueled political divisions in the U.S.

Over the past few decades, more than 2,000 newspapers across the country have closed, leaving many communities without a reliable source of local information. Researchers say this crisis in journalism, driven by changes in technology, is fueling the country's political…

Politics Jul 19

Iowa Republicans discuss role of politics in their lives, hopes for overcoming divisions

Throughout this year, Judy Woodruff has been examining divisions in the country. Recently, she listened in on focus groups in Iowa with two-time Trump voters as they discussed how they feel about the state of the nation, the divisiveness they…

Nation Jul 05

How a group of Ohio voters are working to bridge the widening partisan divide

On the heels of Independence Day celebrations across the country, most Americans feel the nation is more divided today than in the past, according to a recent YouGov poll. To find out why, Judy Woodruff sat down with a group…

Nation Jun 21

School boards become battlegrounds for nation’s divisions on race, gender and more

School boards have traditionally been the domain of nonpartisan civic service, but in the last few years, they have increasingly become reflections of the nation's divisions. Judy Woodruff reports on a district in Pennsylvania where policies around books, gender, sports…

Nation Jun 14

What Iowa Republicans are thinking after Trump’s federal indictment

The news of former President Trump’s federal indictment comes as the GOP primary field is still taking shape. Judy Woodruff is in Des Moines, Iowa, to listen in on voter discussions led by conservative pollster Sarah Longwell. Trump's indictment is…

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