Monica Kaufman Pearson is the first minority and first woman to anchor the daily evening news in Atlanta, Georgia where she worked for 37 years at the leading station WSB-TV. Pearson is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville, where afterward she was a reporter for the Louisville Times newspaper and a reporter and weekend anchor for WHAS TV in Louisville. Pearson has won over 33 Southern Regional and local Emmy Awards for reporting, anchoring and her Closeups celebrity interview show. Since retiring in 2012, Pearson has remained busy and graduated with a Master’s Degree, Magna Cum Laude from the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass communication in 2014. In addition, Pearson has taught at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. A much sought-after emcee and motivational speaker, Pearson hosts a three-hour weekly music and talk show on Sunday on KISS 104.1 FM and also does Closeups Interviews for WSBTV.com. Pearson was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in August 2016 and is also in the University of Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and was awarded by her sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., the Presidential Vanguard award in 2016. While she is an esteemed journalist, Pearson is a member of the Junior League of Atlanta and Sisters of Promise of Susan G. Komen, as she is a survivor of breast and liver cancer. Pearson serves on several boards including Meals on Wheels Atlanta and Go Red for Women. She is married to John E. Pearson, Sr. and is the mother of Claire Patrice Deveaux and step-mother of John E. Pearson, II.