Nancy Gibbs headshot

Nancy Gibbs

Nancy Gibbs is the director of the Shorenstein Center and the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice of Press, Politics and Public Policy. Until September 2017, she was Editor in Chief of TIME, directing news and feature coverage across all platforms for more than 65 million readers worldwide, as well as Editorial Director of the Time Inc. News Group. Gibbs was named TIME’s 17th editor in September 2013, the first woman to hold the position, and remains an Editor at Large. Under her leadership, TIME’s digital audience grew from 25 to 55 million, video streams passed 1 billion a year, and TIME won a primetime Emmy award for its two-part “A Year in Space” documentary, produced with PBS. During her three decades at TIME, she covered four presidential campaigns and is the author of more cover stories than any writer in TIME’s near-100 year history, including the black-bordered “September 11” special issue, which won the National Magazine Award in 2002.

Gibbs has also served as a consultant to CBS News and an essayist for the News Hour on PBS. She is the co-author, along with Michael Duffy, of two best-selling presidential histories: The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity (2012), which spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, and The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House (2007). She has interviewed five U.S. presidents and multiple other world leaders, and lectured extensively on the American presidency, including at the Bush, Reagan, Carter, Johnson and Truman libraries, the Aspen Institute, the Dallas World Affairs Club, the Commonwealth Club and the National Archives. She is a Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.

Gibbs was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Yale summa cum laude, with honors in history, and has a degree in politics and philosophy from Oxford, where she was a Marshall scholar. She has twice served as the Ferris Professor at Princeton, where she taught a seminar on politics and the press.

2024 Goldsmith Awards Ceremony

The 2024 Goldsmith Awards was held on April 3, 2024 in the JFK Jr. Forum. The Goldsmtih Awards honors public service journalism that has had an impact on United States public policy and the functioning of government.

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2023 Goldsmith Awards Ceremony

2023 Goldsmith Awards, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, in-person on March 15 at Harvard’s Sanders Theater and livestreamed online.

Read More »

2022 Goldsmith Awards Ceremony

Honoring Goldsmith Career Award winner Michele Norris, the finalists and winners of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, and the winners of the Goldsmith Book Prize.

Read More »

New Shorenstein Center HKS Executive Education Program

Led by Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs, along with a team of Shorenstein Center faculty and affiliates, the new Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Program Leading through the Changing Media Landscape is designed to equip leaders in the public and private sector to be more successful in today’s difficult media environment. During the past few

Read More »

Welcoming New Faculty and Congratulating Director Nancy Gibbs

As we begin a new academic year at Harvard Kennedy School, the Shorenstein Center is thrilled that five new faculty have joined us at the Center. Professors Sharad Goel, Jim Waldo, Jennifer Lerner, Julia Minson, and Todd Rogers are joining Professors Matthew Baum, Nancy Gibbs, Thomas Patterson, and Latanya Sweeney, along with Lecturer and Senior

Read More »

Harvard Kennedy School Launches the Democracy and Internet Governance Initiative

Read this announcement also on the Belfer Center’s website. CAMBRDIGE, MA — Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy are launching the Democracy and Internet Governance Initiative (DIGI), a joint initiative to convene a range of stakeholders across government, business, and civil society

Read More »

Director Nancy Gibbs On StoryFile

Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs has recorded a StoryFile video that allows viewers to interact with her as she talks about her life, her career in journalism, and the work that she now leads at the Shorenstein Center. Gibbs was the first female Editor in Chief of TIME, where she also had a distinguished career

Read More »

Tara Westover in conversation with Nancy Gibbs

Tara Westover, the author of the New York Times #1 Bestseller Educated, is the Fall 2019 A.M Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at the Shorenstein Center. She joined Center Director Nancy Gibbs on Tuesday, November 5th in the JFK Jr. Forum at the Kennedy School to talk about writing, memory, and the power, privilege, and impact of education.

Read More »
Nancy Gibbs

2017 Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with Nancy Gibbs: “The Divided States of America”

November 15, 2017 — Nancy Gibbs, editorial director of Time Inc. News Group and former editor of Time Magazine, delivered a thought-provoking speech on American values, political polarization, and the impact of social media and journalism. Also at the event, Kevin Cullen, Boston Globe columnist, received the David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism. Watch the video

Read More »

TIME’s Nancy Gibbs: The Disintermediation of Media and Politics

March 1, 2016 — Nancy Gibbs, editor of TIME, discussed the parallels between the disruption of the media industry and the upheaval of politics during the 2016 presidential campaign. In this election cycle, the “traditional entities” – the political parties, the media and the donor class – have been “cut out” as middlemen, said Gibbs.

Read More »

2024 Goldsmith Awards Ceremony

The 2024 Goldsmith Awards was held on April 3, 2024 in the JFK Jr. Forum. The Goldsmtih Awards honors public service journalism that has had an impact on United States public policy and the functioning of government.

Read More »

2023 Goldsmith Awards Ceremony

2023 Goldsmith Awards, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, in-person on March 15 at Harvard’s Sanders Theater and livestreamed online.

Read More »

2022 Goldsmith Awards Ceremony

Honoring Goldsmith Career Award winner Michele Norris, the finalists and winners of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, and the winners of the Goldsmith Book Prize.

Read More »

New Shorenstein Center HKS Executive Education Program

Led by Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs, along with a team of Shorenstein Center faculty and affiliates, the new Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Program Leading through the Changing Media Landscape is designed to equip leaders in the public and private sector to be more successful in today’s difficult media environment. During the past few

Read More »

Welcoming New Faculty and Congratulating Director Nancy Gibbs

As we begin a new academic year at Harvard Kennedy School, the Shorenstein Center is thrilled that five new faculty have joined us at the Center. Professors Sharad Goel, Jim Waldo, Jennifer Lerner, Julia Minson, and Todd Rogers are joining Professors Matthew Baum, Nancy Gibbs, Thomas Patterson, and Latanya Sweeney, along with Lecturer and Senior

Read More »

Harvard Kennedy School Launches the Democracy and Internet Governance Initiative

Read this announcement also on the Belfer Center’s website. CAMBRDIGE, MA — Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy are launching the Democracy and Internet Governance Initiative (DIGI), a joint initiative to convene a range of stakeholders across government, business, and civil society

Read More »

Director Nancy Gibbs On StoryFile

Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs has recorded a StoryFile video that allows viewers to interact with her as she talks about her life, her career in journalism, and the work that she now leads at the Shorenstein Center. Gibbs was the first female Editor in Chief of TIME, where she also had a distinguished career

Read More »

Tara Westover in conversation with Nancy Gibbs

Tara Westover, the author of the New York Times #1 Bestseller Educated, is the Fall 2019 A.M Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at the Shorenstein Center. She joined Center Director Nancy Gibbs on Tuesday, November 5th in the JFK Jr. Forum at the Kennedy School to talk about writing, memory, and the power, privilege, and impact of education.

Read More »
Nancy Gibbs

2017 Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with Nancy Gibbs: “The Divided States of America”

November 15, 2017 — Nancy Gibbs, editorial director of Time Inc. News Group and former editor of Time Magazine, delivered a thought-provoking speech on American values, political polarization, and the impact of social media and journalism. Also at the event, Kevin Cullen, Boston Globe columnist, received the David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism. Watch the video

Read More »

TIME’s Nancy Gibbs: The Disintermediation of Media and Politics

March 1, 2016 — Nancy Gibbs, editor of TIME, discussed the parallels between the disruption of the media industry and the upheaval of politics during the 2016 presidential campaign. In this election cycle, the “traditional entities” – the political parties, the media and the donor class – have been “cut out” as middlemen, said Gibbs.

Read More »