Mimi Gurbst served as the head of news coverage and vice president of the network for

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

. In 2010, she resigned from ABC after almost 30 years of employment to become a high school guidance counselor.

About

Gurbst joined ABC news in the early 1980s where she served as head of news coverage for more than two decades. In 2008, ABC promoted Gurbst to the post of Senior Producer for

Diane Sawyer Lila Diane Sawyer (; born December 22, 1945) is an American television broadcast journalist known for anchoring major programs on two networks including ''ABC World News Tonight'', '' Good Morning America'', ''20/20'', and '' Primetime'' newsmag ...

and

World News with Charles Gibson ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting ...

, with responsibility for futures, features, and domestic news stories. She left the network in 2010 to enroll in the

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

School of Education In the United States and Canada, a school of education (or college of education; ed school) is a division within a university that is devoted to scholarship in the field of education, which is an interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences en ...

, in the master's degree program for "Risk and Prevention," with the hopes of turning her counseling skills into a new career as a high school guidance counselor. Gurbst graduated from the Harvard in 2011 and served as a Teaching Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2012.

Controversy

In May 2010 Gurbst became the focus of an online controversy. After

announced that Gurbst was leaving the network to attend

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's Graduate School for Education and pursue a career as a guidance counselor, Felix Gillette of the ''

New York Observer New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

'' wrote an article which '' Vanity Fair'' later called "somewhat fluffy."Mimi Gurbst: Career Counselor or Cruella Deville? - FishbowlDC

/ref> A large number people spoke out about Gurbst's behavior and its impact on ABC News, claiming that Gurbst had been responsible for creating a toxic work culture at ABC News. Some identified themselves by name, but many posted anonymously.For Departing ABC News Exec, Where the Story Ends, Commentary Begins - TVNewser

Defense letter

In May 2010, Jessica Stedman Guff wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Observer in defense of Gurbst, speaking out against the negative commentary

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurbst, Mimi ABC News personalities Living people Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Year of birth missing (living people)