[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10096]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     IN RECOGNITION OF BRENDA WOOD

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOHN LEWIS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 28, 2017

  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Brenda B. 
Wood, a premier broadcast journalist, one of the best in our region, 
who has been a newsmaker and news breaker in the Atlanta metro area 
since 1988. She decided to retire this year after dedicating over 40 
years to her career, but I understand she will be returning to the 
small screen to work on special creative projects. We want to pay 
tribute to her as she moves into this next phase of her contribution to 
metropolitan Atlanta.
  Ms. Wood was born in Washington, DC, graduated from Takoma Park 
Academy and got her degree in mass media from Loma Linda University in 
Southern California in 1977. She reported for several stations in 
Alabama and Tennessee following her graduation from college but was 
hired as the evening news anchor and reporter in the Atlanta market 
first by WAGA-TV, where she hosted an Emmy award-winning news magazine 
show called Minute by Minute. In 1997, she joined WXlA-TV as its 6 p.m. 
and 11 p.m. weekday news anchor and spent the next 20 years of her 
career at the station. Ms. Wood became a trusted voice on the air. We 
could depend on her to get to the heart of the issues and keep the 
metro area informed with all the news we needed to know to participate 
effectively in a democratic society. Her coverage was incisive, 
balanced, and comprehensive.
  During her tenure, Ms. Wood interviewed top newsmakers like President 
Jimmy Carter, Egypt's former First Lady Jehan Sadat, Ambassador Andrew 
Young, Cher, the rapper T.I. and many others. She produced several 
award-winning prime time specials, including Remembering the 1996 
Olympics, the year Atlanta hosted the games, A Conversation Across 
America, 50 Years of Change, Mission of Hope. Ms. Wood developed 
several special broadcast series like, Journeys with Brenda Wood, a 
news magazine show, The Last Word commentaries, and The Daily 11 at 7 
with Brenda Wood, another award-winning primetime show.
  She has taken home 20 Emmy awards and garnered many different honors. 
Most notably, Ms. Wood was named Georgia Woman of the Year in 2013, was 
granted the Legacy Award of the Atlanta Business League, the NAACP's 
Phoenix Award for Best News Anchor, and inducted into the Atlanta Press 
Club Hall of Fame in 2014, among a host of other honors.
  Our community has loved to watch her tell the stories that gave 
meaning to our lives in the South and described our world so 
accurately. Ms. Wood never ceased to inform us, inspire us, and will 
always be a shining light for our city. We all will miss seeing her on 
the air, but know that Brenda Wood will continue to serve our community 
as a leader who can bring people and good ideas together.

                          ____________________