Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill, one of the nation’s most recognized journalists, has been chosen to moderate the 2008 Vice Presidential Debate by the national Commission on Presidential Debates.

It is the second time that Ifill, the highly respected senior correspondent for PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week,” has been chosen by the nonpartisan debate commission to moderate a vice presidential face-off. In 2004, she was chosen to guide the questioning of vice presidential candidates John Edwards and Richard Cheney.

Ifill will moderate the 90-minute vice presidential debate Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis. The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics.

Ifill joined PBS in 1999, interviewing newsmakers and reporting on a range of issues. Prior to that, she spent five years at NBC News as chief congressional and political correspondent. She joined NBC News from the New York Times, where she covered the White House and politics. She also covered national and local affairs for the Washington Post and Baltimore Evening Sun.

The celebrated journalist also has strong Boston ties. She graduated from Simmons in 1977 with a major in communications, and went to cover the city for both the Boston Herald American and Bay State Banner.

Ifill has received numerous honorary doctorates and is the recipient of several broadcasting excellence awards, including honors from the National Press Foundation, Ebony magazine, the Radio Television News Directors Association, and American Women in Radio and Television.