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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Many companies are now bringing employees back to the office, now that the latest wave of the pandemic has died down. Some workers are thrilled, but others aren't so happy with the change.
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Business owners who rely on seasonal foreign workers coming to the U.S. on H-2B visas are struggling to find help they need for what's expected to be a busy summer. -
Americans are deeply divided on the idea of "vaccine passports," but it's not a red-blue divide. A range of voices across the spectrum are both for and against. -
After being hard hit by the pandemic, Cornwall's Tavern is slowly returning to life. "It's great to get some energy back," co-owner Pam Beale says. "People come in and you can just feel it.' -
After Wednesday's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the response from people around the country who voted for Trump is mixed, with some blaming him and others saying the protesters hurt their cause. -
Instead of banning indoor dining due to COVID-19, Massachusetts is squeezing restaurants with ever-tightening restrictions. At Cornwall's Tavern, it becomes a question of whether to take a break. -
"That's a wonderful sentiment," says Abbi Gold, 59, a Democrat from Arizona. "It's probably a really sweet pipe dream." Hoping to help, many are ramping up trainings for cross-the-aisle conversations. -
For some women, the election of the nation's first female and first woman of color to be vice president is a move in the right direction. Others say it's a reminder of how much more lies ahead. -
During a bruising political season, many Americans are dropping friends and family members who have different political views. Experts say we should be talking more, not less. -
Even in this blue state, President Trump is getting both criticism and kudos over how he is handling his COVID-19 diagnosis, and his managing of the pandemic as a whole.
