Elizabeth Brackett (born December 11, 1941) is a Chicago-based correspondent and host for WTTW-TV's Chicago Tonight program, a correspondent for PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and an author. She is also a World Champion Triathlete; she took the title in 2009 held in Sydney Australia [1]
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Brackett attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois and earned an undergraduate degree from Indiana University. She also holds a master's degree on social work from Our Lady of the Lake College.[2]
After graduating from Our Lady of the Lake College, Brackett worked part time as a social worker at the YMCA in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.[3] She also worked for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services as a social worker and also as a community organizer in Uptown.[4]
In 1972, Brackett was a delegate to the Democratic presidential convention in Miami, along with Jesse Jackson and William "Bill" Singer. In 1975, Brackett served as a fundraiser and advance director for Singer's unsuccessful bid to be mayor of Chicago. In 1976, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat as a committeeman in Chicago's 43rd ward.[5]
In 1977, Brackett took a job as a researcher on the assignment desk of WBBM-TV in Chicago. In 1979, she joined WGN-TV in Chicago. She later became a reporter at WLS-TV in Chicago. She then joined the forerunner to PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, based from Chicago, in 1984.[6]
Brackett won a national Emmy award in 1987 for her reporting on the U.S. farm crisis. [7] The following year, she won a national Peabody Award for her coverage of the 1988 presidential election.[8] She also has won three Midwest Emmy awards and two Peter Lisagor awards as well.[9]
In 1991, Brackett began appearing occasionally on WTTW's Chicago Tonight public-affairs program.[10]
In 1994, Brackett was hired full-time as a correspondent for Chicago Tonight. Under the agreement, she was permitted to contribute to what would eventually become PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.[11]
From 2000 until 2001, Brackett, along with journalist and comedian Aaron Freeman, co-hosted a science-themed spin-off of Chicago Tonight called Chicago Tomorrow. [12]
In 2009, a book Brackett wrote, titled Pay to Play, How Rod Blagojevich Turned Political Corruption Into a National Sideshow was published. The book is about the former Illinois governor. [13]
Brackett married Peter Martinez on September 27, 1998.[14] A previous marriage ended in divorce. She has two children from her first marriage: Elisabeth (born circa 1967) and Jon (born circa 1970).[15]
Brackett lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.