Mary Hager
Mary Hager has served as executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning and No. 1 Sunday morning public affairs program "Face the Nation" since 2011, working with moderators Bob Schieffer, John Dickerson and Margaret Brennan. Hager is also CBS News' executive editor for politics where she oversees the Network's political coverage across its platforms.
Hager was named executive editor for politics at CBS News in January 2022. In this role, Hager brings her decades of political reporting and producing to overseeing CBS News' political coverage across all platforms.
As executive producer for the second longest-running program on television, Hager has led the program to win multiple awards and recognitions including an Emmy Award for its 2013 coverage of the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, a 2019 Wilbur Award, a first place National Headliner Award for the program's coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 Radio Television Digital News Association "First Amendment" Award.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Hager has worked with the "Face the Nation" team and moderator Margaret Brennan to focus on the impact of the pandemic on every aspect of American life as well as the Trump and Biden administration's response to the public health crisis. The broadcast has featured numerous interviews with lawmakers, local and federal elected officials, public health experts, doctors, economists, and world leaders about efforts to untangle society from the grip of the pandemic.
Prior to becoming executive producer, Hager was "Face the Nation"'s senior producer. Hager has covered virtually every presidential campaign, convention and election night over the past 30 years at CBS News, in capacities ranging from embed to anchor producer to executive producer of midterm coverage. She spent more than 15 years as CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer's producer.
Throughout her career at CBS News, Hager has played a key role in the preparation of presidential debate moderators including serving as the lead editorial producer for John Dickerson during the two CBS News 2016 presidential primary debates, and the 2012 debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates and moderated by Bob Schieffer.
Hager began her career at CBS News in 1991 as a researcher in the CBS News political unit, and from there moved to Capitol Hill to work with Schieffer as Senate producer in 1993. In 1999, she moved to the Atlanta bureau, working with CBS News correspondents Byron Pitts and Mark Strassmann covering the southeast and 2000 campaign, including the presidential recount in Tallahassee.
In 2001, Hager returned to Washington as a producer on the CBS Evening News, where she spent eight years covering Congress, politics, the 2004 Kerry campaign, and the George W. Bush White House. She moved to "Face the Nation" in 2009.
Hager is a graduate of the University of Virginia.