Michel Martin
— -- Michel McQueen Martin is a correspondent for ABC News. Prior to joining ABC News, she spent more than a decade covering politics and policy for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, before she joined ABC News in September 1992. She has received one Emmy Award for her ABC News reporting and has been nominated for three others.
Her primary assignment is ABC News' "Nightline," where she has contributed a number of reports for the ongoing series "America in Black and White." One report in this series was nominated for an Emmy Award, cited by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for excellence in coverage of racial and ethnic issues, and it received special notice from TV Guide in its "cheers" column for its candid look at racial stereotyping in news coverage.
Martin has covered a wide range of other stories for "Nightline," including the government budget battles, the challenges of bereaved families during the holidays, the embassy bombings in Nairobi, and the earthquakes in Turkey.
From September 2002 to January 2003, Martin served as a weekly contributor to "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." She was also a primary contributor to the Nightline spinoff series "Nightine Upclose," where she interviewed such diverse personalities as NBA superstar Stephon Marbury, to former LAPD police chief Daryl Gates, who led the department during the Los Angeles riots, to feminist icon Gloria Steinem, to Republican AIDS activist Mary Fisher.
Before joining "Nightline," Martin reported for the ABC News magazine program "Day One," where her reports ranged from an investigation into investments by members of Congress and her Emmy-nominated report with Robert Krulwich on children's racial attitudes, to a segment on the international campaign to ban the use of land mines -- for which she was awarded an Emmy.
During 2001 and 2002, Martin also hosted "Life 360," a unique one-hour program incorporating documentary film, performance and personal narrative, airing on public television stations across the country. The program was the result of an unprecedented co-production agreement between Oregon Public Broadcasting and ABC News' "Nightline."
Martin has also contributed to a number of other ABC programs and specials, including an hour-long documentary on the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy for ABC's "Turning Point;" an hour-long, critically acclaimed special on AIDS, anchored by Barbara Walters; "Cedric's Story," about the challenge of being a brilliant student in a tough inner-city school; and special political coverage, including party convention reports and election night analysis.
She has also reported on a broad spectrum of personalities and achievers, including Emmy-winning actor Dennis Franz, Notre Dame head football coach Tyrone Willingham, famed conductor Sir George Solti, legendary golf instructor Harvey Penick and Anthony Griffin, an African-American civil rights attorney in Texas who took on the challenge of representing the Ku Klux Klan in a First Amendment case.
Before joining ABC News, Martin covered state and local politics for the Washington Post and national politics and policy at the Wall Street Journal, where she was White House correspondent. She has also been a regular panelist on the PBS show "Washington Week" and a contributor to "NOW with Bill Moyers."
Ms. Martin has earned numerous awards, including the 1992 Candace Award for Communications from The National Coalition of 100 Black Women and the 1995 Joan Barone Award for Excellence in Washington-based National Affairs/Public Policy Broadcasting, given by the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association, the 2001 Casey Medal for excellence in the coverage of children and families, and the 2002 Silver Gavel Award, given by the American Bar Association. She has served on the boards of Archbishop John Carroll H.S. in Washington, D.C., and St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire -- where she was part of the third class of girls to graduate from the formerly all-boys school.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Martin graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1980 and has done graduate work at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. She is married to Washington attorney William "Billy" Martin and they are the proud parents of twin toddlers, a boy and a girl, as well as two grown daughters.
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