Charlotte Huffman

Charlotte Huffman is an alumna of the SMU journalism division and a career reporter and anchor with nearly 20 years of professional experience in TV news. She is a four-time Emmy and two-time Edward R. Murrow award-winning reporter.

As SMU’s Interim Broadcast Executive-in-Residence, Charlotte teaches broadcast journalism courses and serves as the SMU-TV faculty advisor, overseeing the production of The Daily Update and Press Pass: SMU’s Spotlight on Sports.

Before returning to SMU, Charlotte was the Investigative Reporter for the nationally recognized investigative team at WFAA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Dallas. She has worked as an investigative reporter, anchor and general assignment reporter for ABC, NBC and CBS television stations across the county.

While reporting for WFAA-TV, Charlotte’s year-long investigation “Passing the Trash” uncovered numerous cases where teachers who had been caught abusing students were still in Texas classrooms. Her series exposed a broken system in which administrators often looked the other way and allowed predatory teachers to quietly resign, sending them on their way with letters of recommendation to work as teachers in other school districts. In 2017, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the “Passing the Trash” law, named after Charlotte’s investigation to protect Texas children.

Charlotte caught the investigative bug while reporting for NBC in Raleigh. Her investigation, “Poison in the Water,” which launched her investigative career, revealed 2,000 contamination sites across North Carolina where families were drinking dangerous levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Charlotte uncovered the source of the water contamination. Then, using internal government e-mails, she exposed how state regulators ignored their own evidence of the danger and failed to warn families that the water they’d been drinking for years could be killing them.

“Poison in the Water” led to state legislative change and a class-action lawsuit by activist Erin Brockovich’s team. Charlotte’s investigation was recognized with one of journalism’s top honors: the Edward R. Murrow Award.

Charlotte is a proud military spouse. Her husband is an F-16 pilot for the United States Air Force and a pilot for American Airlines. The couple lives in Dallas with their two daughters.