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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The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England is the size of Connecticut and has been called an "underwater Yellowstone" and "a deep sea Serengeti."
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While most college students go through courses aimed at preventing campus sexual assault, advocates say it's too little, too late. Some are pushing for similar efforts as early as elementary school.
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In New England, many boarding school staff accused of sexual misconduct quietly left and then moved on to other schools, according to The Boston Globe.Now states are trying to stop the practice. -
In Virginia and New York, academic transcripts must note if a student has been punished for sexual assault. Supporters say it's a matter of public safety. Critics say the move is draconian and unfair. -
President Obama's daughter, Malia, is taking a year off before starting college in the fall. The so-called "gap year" before college has long been a staple — even a right of passage — in many other countries. NPR reports on the growing trend to defer freshman year to pursue other interests.
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The NFL took away the Patriots' first-round draft pick as punishment for Deflategate. Fans say the team shouldn't be penalized while the case is on appeal. -
Underage marriages mostly occur outside of the United States, but in the past decade, thousands of cases have been recorded in the country. A few states are taking action to ban these marriages. -
Someone has been using Lego blocks to repair the corner of a crumbling brick building in Boston. Reporter Tovia Smith set out to investigate who this person is and what else he has been up to. -
As campuses crack down on sexual assaults, some have said the rights of the accused have been trampled. Recently, courts have slammed some schools for systems they say are stacked against the accused. -
It was once a tiny niche market, but it's now an exploding industry as schools look to comply with new rules that require them to offer programs to raise awareness and lower risk.
