Events

PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff on ethics in a time of crisis

The late Jim Lehrer

James C. Lehrer Lecture

PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff on ethics in a time of crisis

Judy Woodruff, William Antholis

Thursday, May 12, 2022
1:00PM - 2:15PM (EDT)
Event Details

Welcome to the inaugural James C. Lehrer Lecture—named in honor of the late Jim Lehrer, PBS NewsHour co-founder and former anchor, and one of America’s leading journalists who reported on every presidency from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. Lehrer was also a longtime member of the Miller Center's board.  

Current PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff joins Miller Center Director and CEO William Antholis to discuss Lehrer’s legacy of journalistic integrity, her approach to reporting, and how she’s led her news team through the major crises of the past several years: the COVID-19 pandemic, related economic turmoil, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the devastating war in Ukraine and its widespread geopolitical ramifications. 

The Lehrer Lecture was established with generous financial support from Mary Anne Burns and Stephen M. Burns, Anne L. Fife and Eugene V. Fife, Alice W. Handy and Peter A. Stoudt, Kate Lehrer, and Karen Turner and Fred W. Scott Jr. The Miller Center also thanks the George and Judy Marcus Democracy Praxis Fund for its support of this event.

When
Thursday, May 12, 2022
1:00PM - 2:15PM (EDT)
Where
Online webinar
Speakers
Judy Woodruff headshot

Judy Woodruff

Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour, the program first hosted by today’s honoree, James C. Lehrer.

Woodruff has covered politics and other news for more than four decades at NBC, CNN, and PBS. She was the White House correspondent and then chief Washington correspondent for NBC from 1977–83. She then joined PBS as chief Washington correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and anchored PBS’ award-winning docuseries Frontline with Judy Woodruff from 1984–90.

She joined CNN in 1993 as a senior correspondent and anchor for the weekday program Inside Politics. She returned to the NewsHour in 2007. In 2013, she and the late Gwen Ifill became the first two women to co-anchor a national news broadcast. After Ifill’s death, Woodruff was named sole anchor in 2018.

Woodruff is a founding co-chair of the International Women’s Media Foundation and a recipient of more than 25 honorary degrees and numerous awards. She is a graduate of Duke University, where she is a trustee emerita.

Bill Antholis headshot

William Antholis

William J. Antholis has served as director and CEO of UVA's Miller Center of Public Affairs since January 2015. In that time, the Miller Center has strengthened its position as the leading nonpartisan research institution on the American presidency and worked with scholars across the University of Virginia to deliver vital research to policymakers and the public. Before coming to the Miller Center, Antholis served as managing director at the Brookings Institution from 2004 to 2014, working directly with Brookings's president and vice presidents. Antholis is the author of Inside Out India and China: Local Politics Go Global (2013) and co-author (with Strobe Talbott) of Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming (2010). He has published articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces on U.S. politics, U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, the G8, climate change, and trade.