Lester Holt to receive William Allen White Foundation National Citation

LAWRENCE — Lester Holt, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and anchor of “Dateline NBC,” has been selected to receive the 2025 William Allen White National Citation. The award, which recognizes individuals for outstanding journalistic service, comes from a vote of the trustees of the William Allen White Foundation, which is named in honor of White.

Holt will accept the award in person April 10 in the Kansas Union to celebrate William Allen White Day. He will give an address at 3 p.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public, but space may be limited.

In 2024, Holt was named the “most trusted television news personality in America” by the Hollywood Reporter/Morning Consult poll after topping the previous list. He became the anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” which has been on the air for more than 75 years, in June 2015 after anchoring the weekend editions of “NBC Nightly News” for eight years and co-anchoring “Weekend TODAY” for 12 years. He joined NBC News in 2000 and has served as principal anchor of “Dateline NBC” since September 2011. In 2020, he launched the award-winning digital newscast “Nightly News: Kids Edition.”

“The selection of Lester Holt as the recipient of this award continues a long tradition of the William Allen White Foundation board of trustees honoring distinguished journalists,” said Ann Brill, dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications. “Mr. Holt has spent decades telling some of the most important stories in the world.”

In the past year, Holt anchored “Nightly News” from around the globe, including from the Democratic and Republican national conventions, Baltimore following the bridge collapse, Florida during Hurricane Milton and Indianapolis for coverage of the eclipse and from the Paris Olympics, where “Nightly News” ranked as the No. 1 newscast for three consecutive weeks.

In 2024, he also conducted several exclusive and headline-making interviews, including with then-President Joe Biden, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the families of American hostages in Gaza and the CEO of Microsoft. Additionally, Holt anchored NBC’s primetime coverage of the 2024 presidential election.

Throughout his career, Holt has been recognized with numerous honors, including multiple Emmy Awards, the National Press Club Fourth Estate award and the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters in 2022.

Other notable recipients of the William Allen White Foundation National Citation include the Marion County Record, Kevin Merida, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Martin Baron, Sally Buzbee, Cokie Roberts, Leonard Pitts Jr., Paul Steiger, Gerald Seib, Candy Crowley, Seymour Hersh, John Carroll, Walter Cronkite, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Helen Thomas, Charles Kuralt, Bernard Shaw, Bob Woodward, Molly Ivins, Gordon Parks, Bob Dotson and Frank Deford. A complete list of recipients is on the School of Journalism & Mass Communications website.

The William Allen White Foundation was founded in 1945, one year after the Kansas Board of Regents established the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications at KU. The William Allen White Foundation has been recognizing outstanding journalists since 1950.