Bertha Coombs ’80 to Speak at Graduation

June 2005

Bertha Coombs of the Milton Academy Class of 1980 has graciously agreed to be our graduation speaker this year. An accomplished and experienced journalist, Bertha covers business and financial news as a reporter for NBC’s business news network, CNBC.

Bertha’s career has given her opportunities to explore a passion for writing and learning fostered during her years at Milton. It has also given her an appreciation for good rain gear. At CNBC, she has reported on everything from the markets to corporate fraud trials and all four of last year’s devastating hurricanes.

Before joining CNBC, Bertha cut her teeth as a financial markets reporter with Yahoo! Finance Vision. Millions around the world downloaded her live Yahoo reports of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Prior to that, Bertha was a reporter and early morning news anchor for ABC News. Among her assignments there: the Clinton impeachment, the Kosovo Crisis and Hurricane Floyd. She also anchored the network's first special report on the John F. Kennedy Jr. plane crash.

In 1996, Bertha came to Milton as a panelist on a Graduates’ Weekend Keynote Panel, “Communications: The Continuing Revolution.” At the time, she was a local news reporter and anchor at WABC-TV in New York. There, her first big assignment was to cover Hurricane Andrew in Florida, just two weeks after she’d moved from Miami where she’d been a reporter at WPLG-TV. She began her reporting career at WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut, where her first big story was (that’s right) a hurricane–Hurricane Gloria.

Bertha is a member and has served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Born in Havana, she came to the United States with her family in 1966.

Following Milton Academy, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Yale University. Following graduation, she was the 1984 Leo Beranek Fellow, participating in a reporter training program at WCVB in Boston.

Though she is a confirmed New Yorker, Bertha continues to be a Red Sox Fan.