The Theodore H. White Lecture is sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The yearly lecture commemorates the late reporter and historian Theodore H. White ’34, who covered East Asia in World War II for Time Magazine and wrote a book on presidential campaigns and the political process, The Making of the President 1960.

Woodruff, who has been in broadcast journalism since joining an Atlanta CBS affiliate in 1970, primarily covers national politics.

She was the dominant CNN anchor on the day of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, remaining on air continuously until 6:30 p.m. that evening.

She recalls being “speechless [on air]... normally...the cardinal sin in television” but in this case “the only appropriate thing to do.”

Woodruff won a News and Documentary Emmy award in 1997 for her coverage of the Atlanta Olympic bombing.

Her nightly show on CNN, Inside Politics, was the first national program devoted exclusively to politics.

Before joining CNN, she worked for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour as a Washington correspondent, and anchored the public television documentary series Frontline.

A graduate of Duke University, Woodruff serves on the boards of several journalism organizations, and is a member of the Visiting Committee of the Kennedy School.

She is married to Al Hunt, a television pundit and executive Washington editor of the Wall Street Journal, who was also present for the speech.