Gretchen Carlson

Gretchen Carlson is one of the nation’s most successful and recognized news anchors and a tireless advocate for workplace equality and the empowerment of women. A Carlson was one of the first high-publicity cases of the 2016 #MeToo movement.

Carlson started her television career as a political reporter in Richmond, Virginia, and later served as an anchor and reporter in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Dallas. She moved to the national scene as the co-host of "The Saturday Early Show" on CBS, where she also served as a CBS News correspondent covering the G-8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, the Timothy McVeigh execution, 9-11 from the World Trade Center, the Bush-Gore election, and many other national and international stories. She reported and produced a 30-part series on domestic violence that won several national awards. In 2015, Carlson’s first book, "Getting Real," became a national best-seller. She hosted "The Real Story" on Fox News for three years and co-hosted the #1-rated cable morning news show "Fox and Friends" for over seven years. Carlson also hosted her show, "The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson," on Fox News for three years.

In 2016, Carlson became the face of sexual harassment in the workplace after she filed a lawsuit against then-Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Her courage was a stepping stone for dozens of other women to come forward with their own accusations against Ailes. Carlson founded Lift Our Voices in 2019, an organization dedicated to making the workplace safer and more equitable for everyone through changing policies and laws to protect workers. Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, a law she championed that excludes sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints from arbitration clauses, was signed into law by President Joe Biden in addition to the Speak Out Act, which she also backed.

Her advocacy has been honored by numerous organizations, including the New York Women in Communications’ Matrix Award; the Radio Television Digital News Association’s First Amendment Leadership Award; the National Organization for Women’s Women of Power and Influence Award; the YWCA Phenomenal Champion of Change; and the Arizona Foundation for Women’s Sandra Day O’Connor Lifetime Achievement Award.

A former Miss Minnesota and Miss America, Carlson serves on the Advisory Board for the Michelle Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and is also a member of the philanthropic organization Women Moving Millions. She’s an honors graduate of Stanford University and also studied at Oxford University.