Betsy Fischer

Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and TV news executive. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University's School of Public Affairs and a member of the International Advisory Council of APCO Worldwide. She also founded her own consulting business, Fischer Martin Media, where she specializes in providing media training to corporate executives.

During the 2016 presidential campaign cycle, she was a contributor to Bloomberg Politics where she co-hosted “Masters in Politics” - a political podcast featuring interviews with presidential candidates, government officials and key strategists. She was also the Contributing Editor for Washington for MORE Magazine where she interviewed female political leaders about policy issues, women’s empowerment and leadership. Additionally, she traveled abroad extensively on behalf of the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs, speaking to foreign journalists, students and political/civic organizations as an independent expert on U.S. elections, women in politics and women in media.

During her earlier career in television news, she was the Managing Editor of NBC News Political Programming, where she was responsible for the development and execution of network political coverage.

Before being promoted to the executive role at NBC News in 2013, Fischer Martin was the Executive Producer of the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs program, Meet the Press, for 11 years. During this time, she oversaw all editorial content, guest-selection, strategic planning, production, marketing, special online programming, and financial decision-making for the program.

Fischer Martin worked closely for 17 years with the late Tim Russert, producing his headline-making interviews for Meet the Press and also serving as his producer for NBC’s coverage of special events and four presidential elections.