Gwendolyn L. "Gwen" Ifill (September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016) was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. She was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. Ifill was a political analyst and moderated the 2004 and 2008 American vice-presidential debates. She was the author of the best-selling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.Ifill was born in New York City, the fifth child of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister (Oliver) Urcille Ifill, Sr., a Panamanian of Barbadian descent who emigrated from Panama, and Eleanor Ifill, who was from Barbados. Her father's ministry required the family to live in several cities in New England and on the Eastern Seaboard during her youth, where he pastored AME churches. In her childhood, she lived in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts church parsonages and in federally subsidized housing in Buffalo and New York City. She graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in communications from Simmons College, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ifill's first book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, was published on January 20, 2009, Inauguration Day. The book deals with several African-American politicians, including Barack Obama and such other up-and-comers as Deval Patrick (the governor of Massachusetts) and Cory Booker (the mayor of Newark, New Jersey). The publisher, Random House, described the book as showing "why this is a pivotal moment in American history" through interviews with black power brokers and through Ifill's observations and analysis of issues.Ifill died of endometrial cancer on November 14, 2016, at age 61.[25] Sara Just, PBS NewsHour executive producer and senior vice president of public television station WETA-TV, praised Ifill as "a journalist’s journalist." President Barack Obama extended his condolences to the Ifill family, stating that he "always appreciated [her] reporting even when [he] was at the receiving end of one of her tough interviews." The Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, expressed his sadness and described her as "an incredibly talented and respected journalist."
