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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As the public comment period for new Title IX guidelines draws to a close, there's a deluge of comments, many in opposition to changes that some say will make the process more friendly to the accused.
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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. -
The government shutdown has led the budget of federal court systems to run dry, causing disruptions to the pursuit of justice. Court officials fear that things could get worse in coming weeks. -
"We just keep knocking head against wall, [saying] 'the warning signs are there,'" says Mark Barden, who lost his son in the Sandy Hook shooting six years ago. -
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced new rules for how colleges handle sexual assault and harassment, saying they will fix a "failed" and "shameful" system that's unfair to accused students.
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Among the significant changes is that schools could make it harder to prove allegations. Instead of only a "preponderance of the evidence," schools could demand "clear and convincing evidence."
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One year after the #MeToo movement took off, new NPR-Ipsos polls show the nation deeply divided on sexual assault and harassment, with fissures running more along party lines than gender.
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College campuses are growing increasingly concerned about how to keep students safe amid a national opioid crisis. Some schools provide free and easy access to drugs that can reverse an overdose. -
There have been multiple "gas" explosions in the towns of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. Massachusetts State Police says Columbia Gas company is shutting off power in those areas.
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Celebrating the Fourth of July is a serious predicament for some when it falls on a Wednesday. It's hard to enjoy barbecues and fireworks when you have to be at work at 9 the next morning.
