Gwen Tolbart

Gwen Tolbart is an Emmy award-winning, five-time Emmy-nominated television broadcaster who stands out as much for career excellence as for her lifelong dedication to community service. 

The Montreal native launched her television career on local programs like Pulse News on CFCF-12 (now CTV) in the early 1990s. After graduating from Concordia’s journalism program, she moved to Dallas, Texas, where she won an Emmy with CBS before landing in Washington, D.C. Since 2002, she has been a weather anchor and feature reporter with WTTG Fox5, also writing and producing her own segment of positive, life-changing stories. 

In her 30-year career, she has achieved many firsts. She was the first Black news and weather anchor on Canada’s The Weather Network, first Black weather anchor and only Black host of Travel, Travel. In 2023, she became the first Canadian journalist and first meteorologist inducted into the U.S. National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame and the first Canadian to receive the NABJ Community Service Award. 

Tolbart’s philanthropic initiatives include founding mentorship programs and leading causes for women, foster care and disadvantaged youth. Her leadership in community service earned her President Obama’s Lifetime Community Service Award in 2016 and commendation from the Governor of Texas, U.S. Congress and Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Among many other accolades, she was named a Top 100 Woman in Maryland for 2014.

A TedX professional speaker, she is a CEO of Tolbart Talks and co-founder of 4EveryGoodReason, a film company focusing on stories of underserved communities.

She received the Concordia University Alumni Association's International Excellence Award in 2024.