University in 1966. She was active in the student government of Duke, and was a member of the sorority Alpha Delta Pi. While studying, Woodruff worked for Georgia Representative Robert Grier Stephens Jr. as an intern during two summers, but was discouraged from working in Washington, D.C., because of how women were treated there. Woodruff decided to enter journalism in her senior year. She graduated from Duke with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1968. She served on Duke's board of trustees between 1985 and 1997. Woodruff received an honorary degree (DHL) from Duke in 1998 and was also awarded honorary degrees by the University of Scranton in 1991 and by the University of Pennsylvania (LL.D.) in 2005. Career From local television to White House correspondent Woodruff applied for her first job in journalism during the spring break of her senior year at Duke. She was hired as a secretary at the news department of the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia (WQXI-TV), and began working after she graduated in 1968. Besides being a secretary, she presented the weather forecast on Sundays in her last six months at the station. Woodruff left the affiliate after a year and a half to move to the local CBS affiliate WAGA-TV in 1970, working as a reporter. She covered the Georgia State Legislature, and anchored the noon and evening news. In 1975, she moved to NBC, where she served as a general-assignment reporter based in Atlanta. Together with Kenley Jones, she covered the southeast, an area spanning 10 states, and the Caribbean. Woodruff was assigned to cover Jimmy Carter's successful 1976 presidential campaign for NBC, when Carter was not yet seen as a major contender. She had already covered Carter's second gubernatorial campaign in 1970 for WAGA. Woodruff traveled with Carter's presidential campaign until she was taken off the campaign trail halfway through 1976. Although she was not on the campaign trail anymore, she kept reporting about the Carter campaign for NBC. After he won the presidency and was inaugurated on January 20, 1977, she moved to Washington, D.C., to become a White House correspondent for NBC News. She continued covering the White House into the Reagan presidency until 1982. Subsequently, she was Chief Washington correspondent for The Today Show on NBC for a year. Woodruff moved to PBS in mid-1983, becoming the chief Washington correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, when the duration