August 2004

SUSAN SPENCER

(CBS News Correspondent, 48 HOURS MYSTERY)

Susan Spencer has served as a correspondent for 48 HOURS since 1993. Her reports for the broadcast have ranged from the Abu Saayef in the Philippines to the drug war in Colombia to custody battles to the rising tide of immigrants in America.

She has received two Emmy Awards for 48 HOURS reports, including one about Bosnian refugees. Spencer also received a 1996 Equality, Dignity, Independence Award from the National Easter Seal Society for a report on autism and an RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence for a story about a child's struggle to find a match for an organ transplant.

Prior to joining 48 HOURS, Spencer was CBS News' White House correspondent and the primary correspondent for the "Eye on America" segments on the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH DAN RATHER. She covered the 1988 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, President George Bush's unsuccessful 1992 reelection campaign and former President Bill Clinton's first inauguration.

Previously a CBS News national correspondent, Spencer played a major role in CBS News' coverage of the Gulf War in 1991, reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and in its coverage of the student uprising in Tiananmen Square and the death of Japan's Emperor Hirohito, both in 1989.

Spencer was named CBS News' medical correspondent in 1986. She was also anchor of the Sunday edition of the CBS EVENING NEWS (1988-89) and substitute anchor for the "CBS Sunday Night News" (1987-89). She joined CBS News as a reporter in its Washington bureau in 1977 and was named a correspondent in 1978.

Prior to joining CBS News, Spencer worked for WCCO-TV, the CBS Owned station in Minneapolis, where she held several positions, including reporter and co-anchor (1972-77). She was a researcher for WCBS-TV, the CBS Owned station in New York (1971-72), and a writer and producer for the public-affairs broadcast at WKPC-TV Louisville, Ky.

Spencer was born in Memphis. She was graduated from Michigan State University in 1968 with a bachelor's degree and from Columbia University in 1969 with a master's degree, both in journalism. She lives in Washington, D.C. Her husband, Tom Oliphant, is political columnist for the Boston Globe. Her birth date is Nov. 28.

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