Quincy Native, Pioneering Sports Journalist Lesley Visser Named Lasell Commencement Speaker

NEWTON, MA – Pioneering broadcast sports journalist Lesley Visser will deliver the 2017 Lasell College Commencement address, the school recently announced. Visser, a Quincy native, is the first woman hired by the Boston Globe as a sports reporter and forged a path for female reporters in the NFL.

A hallmark of Visser's career is her resumé of "firsts" – the first woman to cover the NFL on a regular basis, the first NFL female color analyst, the first woman to cover the World Series for a network broadcast, the first woman recognized by Pro Football Hall of Fame and the first female sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch.

Visser is currently a reporter on CBS's The NFL Today and also contributes to We Need to Talk, the first all-women network sports talk show, and CBS's coverage of the NFL playoffs, the Super Bowl and the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship and Final Four games.

She is a recipient of the Compass Award for "changing the paradigm of her business" and has been recognized by the Museum of Television and Radio for "a career that has broken many barriers and defined previously unimagined roles for women in professional sports and sports broadcasting," according to a Lasell press release.

Visser will also be presented with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the 163rd Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 14 at 11 a.m.

Photo Credit: Matt Sayles/Associated Press