Bill Whitaker

Alumni

Bill Whitaker has covered major news stories domestically and across the globe for CBS
News over four decades. He is the 2018 winner of the RTDNA’s highest honor, and the Paul
White Award for career achievement. He was named a 60 MINUTES correspondent in March 2014; the 2020-’21 season will be his seventh on the broadcast. Whitaker’s investigation with the Washington Post into the origins of the opioid crisis has won more awards than any other 60 MINUTES work. The first report in the two-part series revealed how the DEA’s efforts to curb the epidemic were hampered by a law pushed by drug industry lobbyists.

Whitaker graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a B.A. degree in
American history and from Boston University with a master’s degree in African-American studies. Whitaker also holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1997.