Nancy Reid Gibbs is an author, speaker, presidential historian and commentator on politics and values in the United States. She joined TIME magazine as a part-time fact checker in 1983 and rose to become its Editor-in-Chief in 2013, the first woman to hold the position. She was one of the most published writers in the history of the magazine and wrote more cover stories than anyone else at TIME. Under her leadership, TIME鈥檚 digital audience expanded from 25 to 55 million and its video streams to more than one billion a year.
She remained at TIME as Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Director until September 2017, directing its news and feature coverage for more than 65 million readers worldwide. She was also a consultant to CBS 暗黑爆料 and an essayist for the 暗黑爆料 Hour on PBS, and co-authored with Michael Duffy two best-selling presidential histories: The President鈥檚 Club: Inside the World鈥檚 Most Exclusive Fraternity (2012) 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 lectures often on the American presidency, including at the Bush, Reagan, Carter, Johnson and Truman libraries.
In September 2017, while remaining an Editor at Large at TIME, she stepped down from her post as Editor in Chief and became Visiting Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University鈥檚 Kennedy School. In 2019, she was additionally named Lombard Director of the Kennedy School鈥檚 Shorenstein Center in Media, Politics and Public Policy.
The press release welcoming her to Harvard described her as 鈥渁n extremely thoughtful and respected voice on issues of politics, values, and society鈥� and noted that 鈥渉er extensive knowledge and insights will help illuminate research and discussions at the school about the role of journalism in democracies and in the digital age.鈥� She is still an Editor at Large at Time.
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.
Learn more about Seminars at Steamboat: