Susan Spencer Biography

Susan Spencer

After years in hard news, correspondent Susan Spencer first joined the news magazine 48 Hours in 1993.  She is also a regular contributor to the CBS Sunday Morning broadcast, last year winning her third Emmy for a Sunday report on the marketing of prescription drugs. 

Previous awards included an Emmy for a story on the plight of  Bosnian refugees; a 1996 Environmental Defense Fund Award 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.

Before joining 48 Hours, Spencer was immersed in politics, covering several presidential campaigns, the House of Representatives and finally moving on to the White House as chief correspondent for the latter part of the first Bush presidency and the beginning of the Clinton years.

As a CBS News national correspondent, she also played major roles in CBS News' coverage of the Persian Gulf War, reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the student uprising in Tiananmen Square; and the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

She came to CBS News in 1977, having started her on-air career in 1972 in Minneapolis at WCCO-TV, the CBS-owned station there.

Born in Memphis, she holds a BA in Communications from Michigan State University and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University. 

Currently Susan Spencer lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Tom Oliphant, a former political columnist for "The Boston Globe,” and three cats, Edythe, Blanche and Veronica Jean, none of whom is at all impressed with this synopsis of Spencer’s career.