Live from Endicott, it’s Joan Lunden
Joan Lunden may be used to asking the questions, but she flipped the script at Endicott College on March 4, sharing colorful stories from her years as host of Good Morning America as part of the second annual Presidential Speaker Series, made possible through a generous commitment from Arlene Battistelli ’60.
Lunden was introduced by Distinguished Professor of Broadcast and Digital Journalism Lara Salahi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and one-time regional field producer and reporter for national ABC News programs, including Good Morning America, who called Lunden a tenacious storyteller and said, “she’s inspired so many women like myself to own their journalism careers. Although our time at ABC News didn’t overlap, she left a legacy that paints my way.”
But before she made it big on Good Morning America, she was Joanie Blunden of Sacramento and thought she’d be a doctor like her dad, she confessed to a packed Cleary Lecture Hall crowd.
“The summer before I went away to college, I went to work in a hospital, and I found out pretty quickly the stitches and scalpels were not going to be part of my future,” Lunden said.
It was the ’70s and the feminist movement was underway, and more and more women were being recruited to work in television, Lunden learned through a family friend one night at dinner. He encouraged her to consider going into TV.
“And he’s telling me all of this, but what was I supposed to do, pick up the phone and ask for a job on TV? Actually, that’s exactly what I did.”
She impressed the news director with her gumption and interviewing skills but ultimately received a job offer as a weather girl, which she said yes to—which would become her lifelong motto.
Yes—even when she didn’t have the answers; yes—even when she didn’t know if or how things would work out.
As a weather girl, Lunden not only got more comfortable on air, but management—and the public—got more comfortable seeing a woman on their TV screens.
“Other opportunities started to come along and I seized every single one of them,” she said. “You not only need to be open to hearing opportunities, you have to be willing to take risks.”
Even with the women’s movement behind her, sexism wasn’t gone overnight. But in the face of that sexism, Lunden kept saying yes. To new roles, new challenges, and new assignments on new coasts.
“Then one morning I get a call from my agent, and he says, ‘I just got off with ABC, they’re offering you a job as co-host of Good Morning America.’ Then three minutes later, my phone rang again. It was my gynecologist telling me I was pregnant with my first baby,” she said.
Lunden worried whether ABC might rescind the job offer once they’d learn of her pregnancy, but six months earlier, in 1979, Congress had passed legislation prohibiting discrimination based on pregnancy.
“But it still begs the question: would I be able to do it?” she said. “It was a huge career transition and a huge responsibility. But I couldn’t say no. Of course, I said yes. And I just removed failure as an option and started designing my life.”
The newest Good Morning America co-host worked her newborn into her contract and became one of the first high-profile working women to bring a baby to work with her—groundbreaking for the time and breaking news in the American press cycle.
In her conversation with President Steven R. DiSalvo, Ph.D., Lunden discussed some challenges women still face in the workplace, including salary disparities and the cultural expectation to pull double duty as a caretaker at home.
“Men aren’t in a position of being made to make a choice between work and what it takes to run a home very often, whereas women are,” she said.
Males are also socialized to be aggressors, “and women haven’t traditionally been raised that way, so we didn’t get the same kind of opportunity to build that kind of self-confidence to toot your own horn,” Lunden noted. “I tell women all the time, ‘You can’t hide out in your office.’ No one’s ever had that next promotion or put you on that great team if they don’t hear from you.”
Lunden’s career spanned 26 countries; five U.S. presidents; five Olympics; three royal weddings; and she was nominated for five daytime Emmy Awards. For her Behind Closed Doors with Joan Lunden series, she was awarded a Declaration for Distinguished Civilian Service, the highest honor for civilians, and she remains one of the most trusted journalists in the country.
These days, she is the host of the PBS Health series Second Opinion, and the host of The Washington Post podcast Caring for Tomorrow, as well as a New York Times bestselling author of 10 books.
In 2014, Lunden overcame breast cancer and testified before the FDA on behalf of mandatory mammogram reporting, and most recently advocated for insurance reimbursement for breast exams before the Connecticut state legislature. Her health journey continues to inspire millions of women worldwide.
“It’s never too late,” said Lunden. “Don’t ever underestimate the power to change your life. At any point in time. Never underestimate your power.”