page_title: Gwen Ifill
section_title: Honors and awards
hierarchical_section_title: Gwen Ifill / Honors and awards
caption_attribution_description: Gwen Ifill at the 68th Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, in May 2009. Photo credit: Anders Krusberg / Peabody Awards.
context_page_description: Gwendolyn L. Ifill was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first woman of African descent to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program with Washington Week in Review.
  She was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of the PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. Ifill was a political analyst and moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. She authored the best-selling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
context_section_description: Ifill was awarded the Women in Film and Video Women of Vision Award in 2000. In 2004, she received the Gracie Allen Tribute Award from the Foundation for American Women in Radio and Television.
  She was awarded a Peabody Award in 2008 for her work on Washington Week. In 2009 she was honored with the First Amendment Award by Ford Hall Forum, and Harvard University honored her the same year with the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism. The following year she received the 17th Fred Friendly First Amendment Award from Quinnipiac University. On February 7, 2011, Ifill was named an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta during the sorority's 22nd Annual Delta Days in Washington, D.C.
  June 2009 Gwen Ifill was inducted into the Washington, DC Journalism Hall of Fame by the Washington DC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2012, Ifill was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. In 2014 she was awarded the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism. Her work on the PBS town hall special America After Ferguson earned her a nomination for Outstanding Host in a Talk, Reality, News/ Information or Variety (Series or Special) at the 46th NAACP Image Awards. In November 2015 she accepted the Lifetime Achievement award from the Women's Media Center at the annual Women's Media Awards ceremony. She received the Fourth Estate Award from the National Press Club in 2015. Columbia University awarded Ifill the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2016, but she died two days before the scheduled ceremony.
  Ifill received more than 20 honorary doctorates from universities around the world, including Georgetown University, Smith College, Bates College and Skidmore College. In May 2011 she served as a commencement speaker at Morehouse College.
  On the one year anniversary of her death, November 14, 2017, Ifill's alma mater Simmons College announced that they would be launching a school in 2018, named in her honor as the "Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts and Humanities".
  On January 30, 2020, Ifill was honored on a U.S. postage stamp.
caption: Ifill at the 2009 Peabody Awards ceremony
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