Steven V. Roberts

Steve Roberts has been a journalist for more than 50 years, covering some of the major events of his time, from the antiwar movement and student revolts of the 60s and 70s to President Reagan's historic trip to Moscow in 1988 and thirteen presidential election campaigns. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 1964, he joined The New York Times as research assistant to James “Scotty” Reston, then the paper's Washington bureau chief. His 25-year career with the Times included assignments as bureau chief in Los Angeles and Athens, and as Congressional and White House correspondent. He was a senior writer at U.S. News for seven years, specializing in national politics and foreign policy.

Since 1997, Roberts has been the Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University, where he has taught for the last 31 years. His many honors include the Dirksen Award for covering Congress, the Wilbur Award for reporting on religion and politics, the Bender prize as one of GW's top undergraduate teachers and six honorary degrees. He's been named a Father of the Year by the Father's Day Council and received the Public Service Sector Award from the Aspen Institute

Steve also remains a practicing journalist and author. He serves as the chief political analyst for ABC Radio and writes a nationally-syndicated newspaper column. He also contributes regular columns to Bethesda Magazine and reviews books for the Washington Post. He has written eight books, two of them co-authored with his late wife, the noted journalist Cokie Roberts. In February of 2000, Steve and Cokie published “From This Day Forward,” an account of their marriage, as well as other marriages in American history. The New York Times called the book "inspiring and instructive" and it spent seven weeks on the Times best-seller list. Steve’s childhood memoir, “My Fathers' Houses,” was published in the spring of 2005 and was featured at the National Book Festival in Washington. In 2009 he published “From Every End of This Earth,” the story of 13 immigrant families and the new lives they've made in America. The book, which was also spotlighted at the National Book Festival, started life in the feature writing course he teaches at GW and is dedicated to his students. His latest book, published in the fall of 2021, is “Cokie: A Life Well-Lived”. Major media coverage included NPR, ABC, CNN and PBS. The Washington Post called it ‘encouraging and enlightening’ and the New York Times recommended the audio version, which Steve recorded himself.

Steve and Cokie had two children: Lee, a banker in Raleigh, NC, and Rebecca, a museum specialist and book author in Washington, and six grandchildren. In his spare time, Roberts plays tennis and roots for his grandchildren's sports teams.