Carole Estelle Simpson
Carole Simpson was the anchor for 15 years of the weekend editions of ABC鈥檚 World News Tonight and became--in 1992--the first woman and the first person of color to moderate a US presidential debate. Simpson was also the first African American woman to broadcast news in her hometown of Chicago, the first to anchor a local newscast, the first to become a national network correspondent, and the first to anchor a major network newscast.
As a national correspondent for first NBC News and then ABC News, she won three Emmys, a Peabody, a DuPont Columbia Journalism award, a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists, The First Amendment Award from the Radio Television Digital News Directors Association, and 14 honorary degrees. Recent honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington Press Club and induction into the New York City Journalism Hall of Fame. She has been recognized for her television news reports on World News Tonight, Good Morning America, 20/20 and Nightline; for establishing several scholarships for minority and women college journalism students; and for leading a fight against sexism and racism in her profession.
A founding member of the International Women鈥檚 Media Foundation, she established the Carole Simpson Leadership Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, to support struggling African women journalists throughout the Continent. Her career in broadcast journalism spanned 40 years, which she recounts in her memoir, NewsLady. After leaving ABC News, Simpson served as Distinguished Journalist in Residence at Emerson College in Boston, MA. Since her retirement, she has produced more than 50 video blogs on current affairs, which can be found on her website, W.O.W., which stands for what she calls herself today, a Wise Old Woman.