Hillary Howard is an American reporter. She co-anchored (along with Shawn Anderson) the 2:00pm to 7:00pm shift on all-news station WTOP in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

until June, 2023. Since November 2011, Howard has also served as host of ''

It's Academic ''It's Academic'' is the name for a number of televised academic student quiz shows for high school students through the United States and internationally. ''It's Academic'' programs have notably aired on NBC-owned WRC-TV (and, as of October ...

''.

Career

Howard is a writer, reporter and weathercaster who hosts "It's Academic," the world's longest-running TV quiz show. She succeeded Mac McGarry in the role in 2011 following his retirement. For 18+ years she worked at Washington DC's WTOP News. Howard co-anchored afternoons with Shawn Anderson after co-hosting a political interview show with former

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

correspondent

Bob Kur Robert Ellis Kur (born April 13, 1948) is an American retired television journalist, born in Nutley, New Jersey. Kur received a bachelor's degree from Ithaca College in 1970 and his masters of communications at Columbia University. Kur's first j ...

Washington Post Radio Washington Post Radio was an attempt by Bonneville Broadcasting and ''The Washington Post'' to create a commercial long-form all-news radio network in the style of National Public Radio. The small network of stations based in the Washington, D.C., ...

, a joint venture between WTOP and the Post. Her DC broadcast career began at WTTG/FOX5 where she was the weekend anchor and special projects reporter following her work as an award-winning street reporter and weathercaster. She also worked at WUSA9 and briefly freelanced at ABC7. Besides her news work, Hillary was a writer for the documentary short "Bee the Future," about an english language spelling bee for non-english speakers in Bangalore, India. Howard is also a voiceover artist, story producer and public speaker who was the 2023 master of ceremonies for the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial. Howard is an NYU graduate whose early career was jumpstarted at New York's legendary 1010 WINS where she led a dial-up "newsphone" headline service before shifting to the newsroom.

Brain surgery

In November 2010, Howard fell and suffered a head injury. Later, a brain scan revealed a

meningioma Meningioma, also known as meningeal tumor, is typically a slow-growing tumor that forms from the meninges, the membranous layers surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms depend on the location and occur as a result of the tumor pressing ...

tumor in Howard's brain. Although the tumor was

benign Malignancy () is the tendency of a medical condition to become progressively worse; the term is most familiar as a characterization of cancer. A ''malignant'' tumor contrasts with a non-cancerous benign tumor, ''benign'' tumor in that a malig ...

, she opted to have it removed. The surgery was performed at

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

in April 2011. The operation was successful, and she recovered. Howard returned to work in May.

Family

Howard is married to retired WUSA reporter and noted fire-service blogger Dave Statter.

Awards

Howard won Emmy Awards for News Writing, Hard News Reporting, Feature Reporting and Weathercasting. She also won an Imagen Award for reporting on Hispanic Issues, and was a finalist in the New York Festivals. Howard also won a Chesapeake AP Award for TV and radio work. Her radio career garnered other awards too including a regional Murrow and SPJ. Howard was also part of the WTOP national Murrow Award-winning newsteam for its collective work on breaking news, including the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American radio personalities American radio reporters and correspondents Television anchors from Washington, D.C. {{US-radio-bio-stub