Gwen Ifill, a groundbreaking journalist who covered the White House, Congress, and national campaigns during three decades for The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC, and, most prominently, PBS, died on Monday, November 14 at a hospice in Washington. She was 61. The cause was complications of uterine cancer, her brother Roberto said.
[Journalist Gwen Ifill, who delivered the keynote speech at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast on Feb. 3, shares conversation with Ayanna Samuels, a graduate student in aerospace engineering and the Technology and Policy Program. Photo: Donna Coveney/Tech Talk, 2005]

Journalist Gwen Ifill at the annual MLK breakfast on Feb. 3, 2005, sharing conversation with Ayanna Samuels, an MIT graduate student in aerospace engineering and the Technology and Policy Program. Photo: Donna Coveney/Tech Talk, 2005

An Institute alum remembers Ifill as “a good friend to many of us at MIT in the 70’s while she was at Simmons College”. In 2005, she was the keynote for MIT’s 31st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. The celebration’s theme of “Justice and Equality for All: America’s Moral Dilemma” continues to resonate over a decade later in the volatile climate after recent national elections.

In a distinguished career, Ms. Ifill was in the forefront of a journalism vanguard as a black woman in a field dominated by white men. She achieved her highest visibility most recently, as the moderator and managing editor of the public-affairs program “Washington Week” on PBS and the co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of “PBS NewsHour,” competing with the major broadcast and cable networks for the nightly news viewership.