Tovia Smith
Tovia Smith is an award-winning NPR National Correspondent based in Boston, who's spent more than three decades covering news around New England and beyond.
Most recently, she's reported extensively on the #MeToo movement and campus sexual assault. She's also covered breaking news from the Newtown school shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing and subsequent trial, as well as the capture, trial and later death of Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger. She has provided extensive coverage of gay marriage, and the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, including breaking the news of the Pope's secret meeting with survivors.
Throughout the years, Smith has brought to air the distinct voices of Boston area residents, whether those demanding the ouster of Cardinal Bernard Law, or those mourning the death of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy. In her reporting on contentious issues like race relations, abortion, and juvenile crime, her reporting always pushes past the polemics, and advances the national conversation with more thoughtful, and thought-provoking, nuanced arguments from both — or all — sides.
Smith has traveled to New Hampshire to report on seven consecutive Primary elections, to the Gulf Coast after the BP oil spill, and to Ground Zero in New York City after the Sept. 11 attacks. With an empathic ear and an eye for detail, she tells the human stories that evoke the emotion and issues of the day. She has gone behind the bars of a prison to interview female prisoners who keep their babies with them while incarcerated, she's gone behind closed doors to watch a college admissions committee decide whom to admit, and she's embedded in a local orphanage to tell the stories of the children living there. Smith has also chronicled such personal tales as a woman's battle against obesity and a family's struggle to survive the recession of 2008.
Throughout her career, Smith has won dozens of national journalism awards including a Gracie award, the Casey Medal, the Unity Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Honorable Mention, Ohio State Award, Radio and Television News Directors Association Award, and numerous honors from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Associated Press.
Smith took a leave of absence from NPR in 1998 to help create and launch Here and Now, a daily news magazine co-produced by NPR and WBUR in Boston. As co-host of the program, she conducted live daily interviews on issues ranging from the impeachment of President Bill Clinton to allegations of sexual abuse in Massachusetts prisons, as well as regular features as varied as a round-up of emerging tech and a listener call-in for advice on workplace survival.
In 1996, Smith worked as a radio consultant and journalism instructor in Africa. She spent several months teaching and reporting in Ethiopia, Guinea, and Tunisia. She filed her first stories as an intern and then reporter for local affiliate WBUR in Boston beginning in 1987.
She is a graduate of Tufts University, with a degree in international relations.
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One high school in New York has found a way to have safe and memorable graduation: hold it at a drive-in movie theater. -
Facebook fundraisers posted by people on their birthdays exploded over the past year, bringing in a billion dollars for charities. But some Facebook users think it's too much of a good thing. -
As a growing number of men brought down by the #MeToo movement attempt comebacks, a burgeoning industry of therapists, coaches and counselors is trying to help reform offenders. -
Dozens of women accused chef Charlie Hallowell of sexual harassment two years ago. Hallowell says he's changed now, and that he's worked to find "a softer, humbler, kinder way to navigate the world." -
Some of the powerful men accused of sexual misconduct in the early days of the #MeToo movement are now attempting comebacks, which raises questions about rehabilitation, redemption and reentry. -
A growing number of high-profile men brought down by the #MeToo movement are now attempting to make a comeback, stirring debate on second chances for those who have lost their jobs. -
The 2018 World Series Champion Red Sox were honored at a White House ceremony on Thursday. Most players of color stayed away, leading one sportswriter to comment, "its the white Sox who'll be going." -
What was once limited to small-scale side hustles has mushroomed into so-called essay mills on the Internet, becoming a global industry. -
Jeremy Richman spoke openly and often about the depth of his grief over the death of his 6-year-old daughter, Avielle. He said he wanted people to "hear the reality of it." -
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says new rules could better protect the accused. There have been about 100,000 comments on proposed changes to Title IX. The deadline for comments is Wednesday.
