Robin Roberts was named third anchor of ABC News’ Good Morning America in May 2005.
At Good Morning America, Roberts reports on a wide array of topics and issues for the morning broadcast. She has covered numerous special events ranging from the homecoming of soldiers aboard the USS Roosevelt to the Golden Jubilee at Buckingham Palace to the 25th anniversary of the papacy of Pope John Paul II in Vatican City. Roberts has also interviewed newsmakers from first lady Laura Bush to sports legends Tiger Woods and Shaquille O’Neal.
Most recently, Roberts reported from Des Moines, Iowa, where she anchored a Town Hall meeting with presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). She has also traveled to Africa with former President Clinton to bring viewers a firsthand look at the devastating AIDS crisis in that part of the world. There, she and the president visited cities and villages around the continent to bring the story to GMA viewers. Roberts is also the only morning anchor to have ever broadcast live from inside a Navy submarine.
In August 2005, Roberts found her personal and professional lives collide when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans and the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast – a part of the country she has called home for most of her life. Roberts reported live amid the devastation in the days following the storm and launched GMA Gets It Done, a year-long initiative to get her hometown of Pass Christian, Miss., up and running. She has returned to the Gulf Coast numerous times to continue her reporting and update viewers on how residents, businesses and everyone in that part of the country is mending post-Katrina.
In March 2003, Roberts traveled to the Persian Gulf Region to report from Kuwait on the impending war with Iraq. In March 2004, Roberts returned to the war zone, reporting on the one year anniversary of the war. Roberts has also reported on the practicality of sky marshals on airplanes; the impact of the World Trade Center attacks on the town of Rockville Center; the custody battle over 12-year-old Timmie Meldrum; and the controversial gentrification of Harlem.
Roberts has contributed to Good Morning Americasince June 1995, and has worked in broadcasting for more than 20 years. Other ABC assignments have included segments hosting Good Morning America Sunday and Prime Time.
From 1990 to 2005, Roberts was also a contributor to ESPN, where she was one of the network’s most versatile commentators. Her assignments there included hosting SportsCenter, contributing to NFL PrimeTime from 1990-1994, and providing reports and interviews from the field.
At ESPN, Roberts worked as play-by-play commentator, and host of the network’s WNBA games and specials, from 1997-2000. She was also the primary reporter for ESPN’s coverage of the Winter and Summer Olympics. Roberts served as host of ESPN’s prime-time interview program, In the SportsLight, ESPN Classic’s Vintage NBA, provided coverage of the men’s NCAA Final Four, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and of LPGA events. She has also hosted ABC Sports’ Wide World of Sports.
In 1988, Roberts worked as a sports reporter and anchor at WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Ga. She was also a morning personality on WVEE-FM, Atlanta’s top-rated morning show. Before working at WAGA, Roberts served as a sports anchor and reporter for WSMV-TV in Nashville, Tenn. (1986-88), where she won the “Nashville Scene” Sportscaster of the Year Award in 1987. She also worked at WLOX-TV in Biloxi, Miss. (1984-86) and WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, Miss. (1983-84), as sports anchor and reporter.
Roberts began her broadcasting career while in college at WHMD/WFPR Radio in Hammond, La. (1980-83), where she was the sports director. Roberts also served as a special assignment sports reporter for KSLU-FM in 1982.
In 1983, Roberts graduated cum laude from Southeastern Louisiana University with a bachelor of arts degree in communications. She was also a standout performer on the women’s basketball team, ending her career as the school’s third all-time leading scorer (1,446 points) and rebounder (1,034). She is one of the only three Lady Lions to score 1,000 career points and grab 1,000 career rebounds. During her senior season, she averaged a career-high 15.2 points per game.
The inaugural Robin Roberts Sports Journalism Scholarship, created by the Women’s Institute on Sport and Education, was presented at the 1996 NCAA Women’s Final Four. In February 1996, Roberts received the annual Distinguished Achievement Award in Broadcasting from the University of Georgia’s DiGamma Kappa, the nation’s oldest professional broadcasting society. She was also named to Basketball Times’ “Five Most Intriguing People in College Basketball” list in January 1997 and received the 1998 media award from the New England Women’s Fund (a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing opportunities for women and girls through sports).
In 2001, Roberts was named a “Louisiana Legend” by Louisiana Public Broadcasting. She was also named to the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Advisory Board in January of 1998, a select group which includes Henry Kissinger, William Simon, Christine Whitman and Lamar Hunt. Previously, Roberts received the 1993 Excellence in Sports Journalism Award for Broadcast Media, given by the Northeastern University Center for the Study of Sport in Society and the School of Journalism. She was also awarded a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Television Award of Merit in 1990 as the best woman sports commentator on television. In January 1991, Roberts was appointed to the Women’s Sports Foundation Advisory Board. Roberts was awarded the 1992 Women at Work Broadcast Journalism Award for her contributions to the image of working women on television and for expanding career options for women in broadcast journalism. In 1994, she was inducted in the Women’s Institute on Sport and Education Foundation’s Hall of Fame. She is also active as a speaker for charity and civic functions.
In addition to covering world events, Robin has shared her personal experiences with Good Morning America audiences around the country. In July 2007, she announced that she had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and was undergoing treatment. Since then, Robin has become an outspoken advocate for breast cancer awareness and the importance of early detection. In March 2007, Hyperion Books published her first book, From the Heart: Seven Rules to Live By which was a New York Times bestseller. An updated version, From The Heart: Eight Rules To Live By, was released in October 2008 with an additional chapter on her experience with breast cancer.
Roberts is a native of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and has worked to aid rebuilding efforts there after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
