Scott Pelley

Scott Pelley is among the most recognized reporters in American journalism. His career at CBS News spanned 37 years. He served as a correspondent for 60 Minutes for 27 years and from 2011 to 2017, he was Anchor and Managing Editor of The CBS Evening News. Pelley has covered the major stories of our time and interviewed the newsmakers who have changed our world. 

As a war correspondent, Pelley has covered Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. On September 11, 2001, he was reporting from the World Trade Center when the North Tower collapsed. As a political reporter, Pelley has interviewed five serving U.S. presidents, leaders of the House and Senate and three members of the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Pelley has won a record 54 Emmy Awards, four Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Silver Batons and three George Foster Peabody Awards.

 In 2016, in accepting the Walter Cronkite Award, Pelley said, “I receive too much credit for the work of others. I have never accomplished anything in journalism without photographers, producers and editors. Hundreds of people at CBS News have given me my career, but one person has given me a life, my lovely wife, Jane.”

The Pelleys have been married 43 years and have a son and daughter.

Pelley will be the keynote speaker at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association 103rd Spring Convention, which will take place March 17-19, 2027, on the Columbia University campus. Registration will open in late October.