Mary Alice Williams

Photo Credit: Michael Stahl

Mary Alice Williams tends to see every obstacle as an opportunity. She began breaking down barriers as a teenager, at a time when television newsrooms were virtual boys’ clubs and the few girls allowed were relegated largely to “light and fluffy” stories, so-called “women’s news.” But Mary Alice was among a handful of women reporting from the field on events that re-shaped America, including political assassinations and Vietnam-era anti-war protests. Then, at age 22, she was installed as Executive Producer of news at the NBC affiliate station in Minneapolis and a year later Executive Producer in New York City. When WNBC launched the nation’s first two-hour evening newscast, Williams returned to reporting and anchoring, refusing to obey the boss who told her to change her name and mask her pale blue eyes with colored contact lenses because he thought her eyes were “creepy.” When Ted Turner launched the world’s first 24-hour global network, CNN, Williams was asked to join the founding team. As one of the primary architects behind its design, Williams oversaw the construction of CNN’s New York Bureau and took charge of the planning and operation of the network’s second-largest bureau with responsibility for seven hours of original programming per day. There, the pioneering journalist and broadcast executive went on to break the glass ceiling in broadcasting by becoming the first female prime-time anchor of a network news division and the first woman to hold the rank of Vice President of a news division. In addition to CNN, Mary Alice also served as anchor at many prominent networks, including PBS, Discovery, and NBC.

But her Jersey roots were deepening. When NJPBS built out its newscast to cover a state Benjamin Franklin had predicted would be a “mere apostrophe” between New York and Philadelphia, she jumped at the chance to help put it on the map as a stand-alone powerhouse of a state. She wrote and anchored a program that illuminated New Jersey’s promise and sharp-elbowed politics, culture, and conflict, educational and environmental issues, and the health and well-being of the Garden State.

Williams has logged guest appearances on national television shows, earned 15 honorary doctorates for her work, garnered Emmy Awards and Gracie Allen Awards, Awards from American Women in Radio and Television, the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, and more, and she has been inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

But her greatest accomplishment, just ask her, is having married a Jersey Boy and raised three powerful Jersey Girls!