Monica Pearson- WSB-TV's 5, 6, and 11 p.m. Action News anchor- joined the Channel 2 staff in August, 1975.The University of Louisville graduate was a reporter with The Louisville Times for 5 years. In 1969 she participated in the Summer Program for Minority Groups, later called The Michelle Clark Fellowship, at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York. She worked in public relations for Brown-Forman Distillers before joined WHAS-TV in Louisville as a reporter and anchor for 3 years.
Monica is a member of various professional organizations, which include: The society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi; The National Association of Black Journalists; The Atlanta Association of Black Journalists; The Atlanta Junior League.
She has received numerous awards, which reflect her outstanding abilities. Following is a partial list of her achievements:
28 Local and Southern Regional Emmy Awards- for Talent, Reporting, and CLOSEUPS. Honors include the Distinguished Service to Broadcasting Award, presented in January, 1989, by DiGamma Kappa Honorary Society at the University of Georgia. (Previous recipients of this award include Barbara Walters, Ed Bradley, and John Chancellor.) In 1992 the Metropolitan Atlanta YWCA presented her their prestigious “Woman of Achievement Award.” The Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics voted to award her the “Friends of Children Award for 1992.” The Women’s Sports Foundation and Miller Lite presented her the “Women’s Sports Journalism Award for Local Television Reporting” for her investigative report on the Georgia High School Association, which in its 87 years had never had a woman on its executive committee and did not have a statewide competition for girls’ soccer and cheerleading.
Monica was awarded First Place recognition by the Atlanta Professional Chapter Society of Professional Journalists, Green Eyeshade Awards, for excellence in Journalism/Documentary for “HOT FLASH! The Truth about Menopause”, on March 18, 1995. The documentary also won two National American Women in Radio and Television Commendation Awards, in competition with network programs, for Best Magazine Show and Best Program produced by a woman.
Monica was the first black person and the second woman to serve as Chairman of the Metropolitan United Way, in 1988. In 1993 Lieutenant Governor Pierre Howard paid tribute at a surprise luncheon- “Georgia Says Thanks, Monica”—with tributes from Families First, Northwest Georgia Girl Scouts, and Exodus. The Georgia Association of Broadcasters named Monica Kaufman “1992 Citizen-Broadcaster of the Year.”
The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust named Monica recipient of the Humanitarian Award at their May 8, 1977 Civic Observance of the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, in appreciation of her documentary, “Prejudice and Hate: Georgians and the Holocaust.”
“The Abuse Excuse”, entered by Monica Kaufman, Susan Stone, Sean Drummond, and Leon Jobe, was named “Best News Story (Large Market)” and received a 1997 Exceptional Merit Media Award- EMMA.
The 1997 AWRT Tara Tribute Award was presented to Monica Kaufman and Rebecca Chase at an October, 1997 banquet, for their outstanding contributions to broadcast journalism.
Monica is a Life Member of the NAACP, and she secured a Life Membership for her daughter, Claire Patrice, at age 9 months. Claire was born in 1980. Monica is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Her church membership is with Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. She is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. She was coordinator of the senior citizens program at her church, called “Young at Heart and Filled with Spirit.” She was inducted into the NATAS Silver Circle and in 2007 received the Board of Governors Award from the Southeastern Chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2000 Monica was named the first woman president of the Atlanta Tipoff Clubs Awards for High School Basketball Players and co-sponsors of Naismith Awards.
Monica’s 2001 awards are the Kentucky Journalist Hall of Fame, the Archdiocese of Louisville Award, and the Atlanta Business League Award. In 2001 she was named “Broadcaster of the Year” at the DiGamma Kappa Broadcast Pioneer Award at the University of Georgia for the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
In 2002 Monica received an Emmy Award for Best Feature Program, “Monica Kaufman Closeups”, Jezebel Magazine named her “One of the 50 Most Beautiful Women” in 2003. The National Foundation for Women Legislators presented Monica with a Media Excellence Award at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in February, 2004. She serves on the Board of Directors of True Colors Theatre Company, The High Museum, and the Advisory Committee for the Alliance Theatre Company.
The Georgia Commission of Women and Georgia Women of the Year elected anchor/TV personality Monica Kaufman as “2004 Georgia Woman of the Year”. Monica joins the ranks of either other distinguished Georgia women: 1996, First Lady Rosalyn Carter; 1997, Kennesaw State University President Dr. Betty Siegel; 1998, Georgia Supreme Justice Leah Ward Sears; 1999, Claire Hicks, M.D.—a Jesup physician who treats AIDS patients; 2000, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox; 2001, Georgia’s First Lady Marie Barnes; 2002, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin; and 2003, Georgia Power Company Executive Vice President Judy M. Anderson.
She also has received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1986 and another from Oglethorpe University in 2007.
Since 2002 Monica has read weekly to first graders in Atlanta Public Schools through the BookPals program of the Screen Actors Guild.
Monica is married to John E. Pearson, Sr. She also has a daughter, Claire Patrice, and a stepson, John E. Pearson, II, born in 1985.
You can email Monica at monica.pearson@wsbtv.com
from WSB.
