Ask For What You Want

First black woman vp at cbs news speaks up

- Caroline V. Clarke

KIM GODWIN IS A SPONGE FOR POSITIVE INPUT. When her kindergarten teacher told her she could be anything, she believed it. When a high school teacher told her she was a good writer, she owned that too. And when Florida A&M University journalism professor Phil Keirstead saw something in her as a college freshman that made him say she’d make a good producer, Godwin ditched her pre-med plans and changed the course of her life.

Now, as the newly installed first African American woman vice president of news in the history of CBS TV, the Emmy Award-winning Godwin says she owes much of her success to good parenting and those great teachers. But a deep dive into her résumé’s backstory shows that the real key has been her consistent eagerness to do what many women don’t: Godwin asks for what she wants.

In a recent conversation with black enterprise, Godwin—who is also executive director for development and diversity at CBS News, another role she openly sought—talked about where the courage to raise her hand comes from, and the enormous responsibility she feels to preserve the value and integrity of the news while developing diverse new voices to mine and present it.