About Whitney

Whitney Pennington Rodgers is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker and the Current Affairs Curator at TED. In her role with TED, she curates talks and interviews that explore and address the most urgent and newsworthy issues of the moment. 

Prior to joining TED, Whitney was a video journalist at NBC News where she produced for NBC’s primetime news magazines Dateline NBC and Sunday Night. Whitney earned a duPont-Columbia Award and a News & Documentary Emmy for her contributions to the Dateline NBC hour, “The Cosby Accusers Speak” – an extensive group interview with 27 of the women who accused entertainer Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct.

Whitney has worked at NBC’s in-house production company Peacock Productions, The Today Show, Nightly News, Rock Center and New Jersey-centric public affairs shows Caucus: New Jersey and One-on-One with Steve Adubato. Prior to beginning her career in media, she had a short stint as a fourth grade teacher through the Teach for America program.

Whitney received her Bachelor’s of Arts in journalism and media studies from Rutgers University. She completed her Master’s of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where she produced a documentary about recruitment of nonblack students at historically black colleges and universities.