Alison Stewart (born July 4, 1966) is an American journalist and author. Stewart first gained widespread visibility as a political correspondent for
MTV News
MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...
in the 1990s. She is the host of WNYC's midday show, ''All of It with Alison Stewart''.
Early life and education
Stewart was born in
Glen Ridge, New Jersey
Glen Ridge is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 7,802, an increase of 275 (+3.7%) from the 2010 United St ...
. She is the daughter of the senior vice president for corporate affairs at
Squibb Corporation, the pharmaceutical company in
Princeton, New Jersey
The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
. Her mother taught biology at
Columbia High School Columbia High School may refer to:
*Columbia High School (Huntsville, Alabama)
*Columbia High School (Georgia)
*Columbia High School (Florida)
*Columbia High School (Idaho)
*Columbia High School (Illinois)
*Columbia High School (Mississippi), a Mis ...
in
Maplewood, New Jersey
Maplewood is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is an inner-ring suburban bedroom community of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's popula ...
.
She attended
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American literature. She began her broadcasting career there, where she was the music director for the school's radio station,
WBRU
WBRU is an internet radio station based in Providence, Rhode Island. The station is owned and operated by Brown Broadcasting Service, an independent Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization, and is primarily staffed by students from Brown ...
.
Career
20th century
In 1988 Stewart began her career as an assistant at
MTV. In 1991, she joined MTV News as a segment producer when she was hired by MTV News Director Linda Corradina. She began reporting and producing during MTV's first "Choose or Lose" campaign, which covered the
1992 presidential race. Her role in MTV's campaign coverage earned her a
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...
.
Stewart also contributed segments to other MTV News shows in the 1990s including ''Megadose'' (an alternative health program) and ''MTV News: Unfiltered''. She also hosted specials including ''
the Real World Reunion'' in 1995.
Following the 1996 "Choose or Lose" campaign, Stewart left MTV and moved to
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
in December 1996. She reported for several of the network's news programs, including ''
CBS News Sunday Morning'', ''
48 Hours'', and ''
Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel''.
[
]
21st century
Moving to ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to:
* ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company
ABC News may a ...
, she co-anchored its early morning news program, '' World News Now'' with Anderson Cooper, and also contributed reports to ''Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
'' and '' 20/20 Downtown''.[ She earned an ]Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
as part of ABC News' coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In 2003, Stewart moved from ABC News to MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
, where she was a daytime anchor and primary substitute host for '' Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' and ''The Rachel Maddow Show''. She occasionally filled in as a newsreader on NBC's '' Weekend Today''. From May 2006 to April 2007, she hosted a daytime news program on MSNBC, '' The Most with Alison Stewart''.
Stewart joined NPR in May 2007 to host (along with Luke Burbank) a multi-platform morning drive show, '' The Bryant Park Project'', which targeted an online audience, younger listeners and adults ages 25 to 44. The program premiered October 1, 2007. NPR canceled the program due to budget constraints in July 2008. Stewart returned from maternity leave to host the show's last week, July 21 to 25, 2008.
Stewart also served as a panelist on NPR's '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' and as a fill-in host of NPR's '' Talk of the Nation'' and '' Weekend Edition''.
On May 7, 2010, she became the co-host of the new show '' Need to Know'' on PBS. She left the show on September 9, 2011; in her departure announcement she said she would be finishing a book she had "been working on for years."[PBS.org]
Alison signs off
, pbs.org, September 9, 2011.
In late 2011, Stewart returned to CBS News to report a story on cheating on standardized college admissions tests for ''60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
'' that aired on January 1, 2012. In 2012, she hosted the first season of the '' TED Radio Hour'', a radio program (with podcast) produced by TED and NPR.
In 2013, her book ''First Class'', a history of Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.), was published. It was named one of the best books of 2013 by ''Mother Jones'' and ''Essence'' magazines. Her second book, ''Junk: Digging Through America's Love Affair with Stuff'', was published in April 2016.
Stewart returned to PBS as a special correspondent in 2016 and served as a fill-in anchor for '' NewsHour Weekend'' and ''Charlie Rose
Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show ''Charlie Rose (talk show), Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg L.P., Bloombe ...
''. She continues to contribute to PBS and is also a contributor at ''The Atlantic LIVE.''
In September 2018, Stewart was added to the WNYC
WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...
lineup hosting a midday show, '' All of It with Alison Stewart''. She is the host of the book club live event series, ''Get Lit With All Of It''.
Works
*
References
External links
Official website
"Biography: Alison Stewart"
, PBS ''Need to Know'' website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Alison
1966 births
Living people
African-American television personalities
American broadcast news analysts
American radio journalists
American television reporters and correspondents
NPR personalities
Brown University alumni
Peabody Award winners
People from Glen Ridge, New Jersey
African-American women journalists
African-American journalists
American women radio journalists
American women television journalists
MSNBC people
CBS News people
PBS people
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women journalists
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women journalists
Journalists from New Jersey
Writers from Essex County, New Jersey