2025 MATRIX HONOREE

KRISTEN WELKER

Moderator, Meet The Press; Anchor, Meet The Press Now

Kristen Welker is moderator of NBC News’ Meet the Press and the anchor of Meet the Press NOW on NBC News NOW. She is the second woman and first journalist of color to moderate the program and her reporting and analysis appears across all NBC News platforms, including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, TODAY, NBC News NOW, and NBCNews.com. Prior to assuming the moderator’s chair in September 2023, Welker served as the co-anchor of Weekend TODAY and NBC News chief White House correspondent, where she led the network’s coverage of the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations.

Since assuming the moderator’s chair, Welker has conducted news-making interviews with  administration officials, candidates, elected leaders, and foreign heads of state – including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, every major 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In December 2024, Welker had the first network interview with President-elect Donald Trump since he won the election. Welker was first introduced to Meet the Press audiences in 2022 as a co-anchor for Meet the Press NOW, the daily streaming program on NBC News NOW, and as a fill-in anchor for Sunday’s Meet the Press.

Numerous journalistic organizations have honored Welker throughout her career. She is a recipient of the National Press Club’s highest honor, the Fourth Estate Award, and in 2024 received the Radio Television Digital News Foundation’s First Amendment Award for her commitment to a free press. She has also received recognition from the Washington Association of Black Journalists and the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association.

Welker has gained widespread trust and respect as a presidential debate moderator, co-moderating the NBC News Republican presidential debate in Miami alongside NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in November 2023 and receiving widespread praise from writers and pundits across the political spectrum. In October 2020, she moderated the final presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and then-candidate Joe Biden, with USA TODAY writing that Welker was “praised for ‘masterclass’ debate moderation.” Welker also co-moderated the MSNBC/Washington Post Democratic presidential debate in November 2019 at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Ga.

During the 2016 election, Welker covered former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. She broke the news that then-Vice President Joe Biden had decided not to run for president in 2015.

Prior to joining the White House team in 2011, she was an NBC News correspondent based in Burbank, Calif. — a homecoming for her after serving as a researcher on Weekend TODAY early in her career and as an intern for TODAY while in college. During her first year at the network, Welker was nominated for a national Emmy award for her role in NBC News’ midterm election coverage. She won an Emmy for her role in the network’s coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Welker was previously a local reporter at WCAU-TV, NBC’s owned station in Philadelphia, where she anchored the NBC 10 weekend newscasts and started as a general assignment reporter in April 2005. She also reported for WLNE-TV in Providence, R.I. and KRCR-TV in Redding, Calif.

Welker, a native of Philadelphia, graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in American history. She lives in Arlington, Va. with her husband John Hughes, daughter Margot Lane and son John Zachary.

Follow Welker on Twitter @kwelkernbc.

Presenting the Matrix Award to Kristen Welker

ANDREA MITCHELL

NBC NEWS CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

Andrea Mitchell is NBC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent. A veteran political correspondent for NBC News, Mitchell has covered every presidential campaign since 1980 for the network, in addition to reporting on intelligence and national security issues across all NBC News and MSNBC properties. Mitchell hosted “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC for 17 years.

She appears regularly on “Nightly News with Lester Holt,” “TODAY” and “Meet the Press” as well as on the streaming service NBC News NOW. Mitchell’s extensive and varied reports over the years include all of the Reagan/Gorbachev arms control summits, exclusive interviews with Cuba’s late President Fidel Castro, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, 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.

She was a panelist in the 1988 Bush-Dukakis Presidential debate as well as in the NBC News Democratic Primary debate in 2015. In 2019, she co-moderated the fifth Democratic presidential debate hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post in Atlanta.

Mitchell has been honored for her distinguished reporting, receiving the lifetime achievement award at the 40th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, The International Radio and Television Society Foundation’s Giant of Broadcasting and Electronic Arts Honor, the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Freedom of the Press Award from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Leonard Zeidenberg Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for her contribution to the protection of First Amendment freedoms. Mitchell was also recognized by New York Women in Communications with the prestigious Matrix Award for her excellence in broadcast journalism and won a Gracie Award for Outstanding Reporter/Correspondent.

In September 2005, Mitchell authored the best seller, “Talking Back,” a memoir about her experiences as one of the first women to cover five presidents, Congress, and foreign policy.

A native of New York, Mitchell received a B.A. degree in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania where she served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors. She is currently an Emerita Trustee and created the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy at the University. In 2018, Mitchell delivered the University’s Commencement Address, receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Mitchell is married to former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and resides in Washington, D.C.