Carole Simpson (born December 7, 1940) is an American broadcast journalist, news anchor, and author. She is the first African-American woman to anchor a major United States network newscast.
Education and career
Simpson, a graduate of the University of Michigan, began her career on radio at WCFL in Chicago, Illinois, and was later hired at WBBM. She moved to television at Chicago's WMAQ and onto NBC News in 1975, becoming the first African-American woman to anchor a major network newscast. She joined ABC News in 1982, and was an anchor for the weekend edition of World News Tonight from 1988 until October 2003.
She became the first woman of color to moderate a presidential debate when she moderated the debate held between George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot, at Richmond, Virginia, in 1992. That same year she was the recipient of the Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
Simpson is on the Advisory Council at the International Women's Media Foundation.
She retired from ABC News in 2006 to begin teaching journalism at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, where she taught until 2019.
Simpson is a former member of the Radio Television Digital News Foundation Board of Trustees, an affiliate of the Radio Television Digital News Association. There, she established the Carole Simpson Scholarship to encourage and help minority students overcome hurdles along their career path, which is offered annually to aspiring journalists.
In 2010, her autobiography, Newslady, was published by AuthorHouse.
Personal life
Simpson is a cousin of sportswriter and ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon.
See also
List of Emerson College people
Lists of journalists
List of people from Chicago
List of University of Michigan alumni
References
External links
"Interview with Carole Simpson". Retrieved November 27, 2007. "Carole Simpson 2008 Schwartz Visiting Fellow". "Carole Simpson Honored in 1993 with Striving for Excellence Awards" through The Minorities in Broadcasting Training Program
1941 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women journalists 20th-century American biographers American women biographers 20th-century American educators 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American biographers 21st-century American educators 21st-century American women writers ABC News personalities 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics African-American radio personalities African-American television hosts African-American women journalists African-American journalists American autobiographers Educators from Illinois Emerson College faculty Hyde Park Academy High School alumni NBC News people Radio personalities from Boston Radio personalities from Chicago Television anchors from Boston Television anchors from Chicago University of Michigan alumni Women autobiographers American women radio journalists Journalists from Boston Journalists from Chicago American women television journalists 20th-century American women educators 21st-century American women educators 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 20th-century African-American educators 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century American women academics