Kristen Welker (born July 1, 1976) is an American television

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

working for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...

. She serves as a White House correspondent based in Washington, D.C., and co-anchor of '' Weekend Today'', the Saturday edition of ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

'', alongside

Peter Alexander Peter Alexander may refer to: * Pete Alexander (born Grover Cleveland Alexander; 1887–1950), American baseball player * Peter Alexander (Shakespearean scholar) (1893–1969), professor of English language and literature at the University of Glasgo ...

Early life and education

Welker is the daughter of Harvey and Julie Welker.Philly Magazine: "HughE Dillon: Jonas Brothers Play Ball in Camden - Plus today’s Snoop Dogg appearance, a farewell party for NBC 10′s Kristen Welker, and D.A. Seth Williams sings for his supper" By Hugh E. Dillon
August 30, 2010 Her father is an engineer, her mother a

real estate agent A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and ag ...

. Welker's father is white and her mother is black. She graduated from

Germantown Friends School Germantown Friends School (GFS) is a coeducational independent PreK–12 school in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States under the supervision of Germantown Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

in 1994 and

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1998. At Harvard, she majored in history and graduated with honors. Welker also interned for ''

'' in 1997, while at Harvard.

Career

Welker has worked at ABC affiliates WLNE-TV in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, and KRCR-TV in Redding/ Chico,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and joined NBC in 2005 at affiliate

WCAU WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jer ...

in Philadelphia, where she was a reporter and weekend anchor. She then joined

in 2010 as a correspondent based at the NBC News West Coast Headquarters in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who ...

. She became an NBC White House correspondent in December 2011. Welker regularly represents

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

at the daily White House press briefings as well as reports live for various programs on the channel. She occasionally fills in on ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...

'' and ''

''. On January 10, 2020, NBC announced that Welker would become the regular co-anchor of ''Weekend Today'' alongside

. She debuted as co-anchor on '' Weekend Today'' on January 11, 2020.

Personal life

Welker married John Hughes on March 4, 2017, in Philadelphia. Their daughter was born in June 2021 through a surrogate.

References

External links

NBC's Bio of Kristen Welker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Welker, Kristen 1976 births Living people African-American television personalities African-American women journalists American television reporters and correspondents American women television journalists Germantown Friends School alumni Harvard College alumni MSNBC people NBC News people