Since beginning her professional journalism career in 1967, Andrea Mitchell has become an icon in the world of serious reporting, eventually rising to chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News. Domestically, the veteran correspondent has extensively covered every American president since Jimmy Carter. Mitchell’s extensive and varied reports over the years also include some of the biggest and most contentious events in modern history, including the Reagan/Gorbachev arms control summits, a series of exclusive interviews with Cuban President Fidel Castro, coverage of the Iran nuclear negotiations, conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, as well as assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.
Following more than two decades reporting on the Clintons, including Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid, Mitchell received the title “Dean of the Clinton Press Corps.” Mitchell is also the recipient of the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and in 2019 earned a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for her journalistic work. Currently she anchors the popular hour-long program, "Andrea Mitchell Reports," which is on MSNBC.
Mitchell's love for the power of broadcast media can be traced back to her early days as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. While a student, the New York native first cut her journalism teeth by serving as news director of student radio station WXPN. A good student her whole life, in 1967 Mitchell received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Penn’s College of Liberal Arts for Women. Instead of returning home, however, Mitchell's experience as Program Director at Penn led to her accepting her first reporting job at a local radio station in Philadelphia.
Mitchell, together with her husband, Alan Greenspan, has long been a huge financial supporter of Penn with gifts supporting Kelly Writers House, two endowed professorships, and even the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy. Created in 2017, the center frequently hosts some of the world's top experts on politics, journalism, and public policy.
More than that, the famed journalist is also Emerita Board Chair of the Penn Arts & Sciences Board of Advisors, while also serving as a University Trustee Emerita. Previously, she served as Chair of the Annenberg School Advisory Committee. In 2002, in recognition of her many professional and personal contributions over the decades, Mitchell was awarded the University’s highest alumni honor —the Alumni Award of Merit. To date, she maintains a strong connection with the Penn community and can frequently be seen returning for public events.