Callie Crossley

Host, Under the Radar with Callie Crossley

Callie Crossley hosts the radio show and podcast Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and shares occasional radio essays on Mondays on GBH’s Morning Edition. She co-hosts GBH’s radio program, The Culture Show, which focuses on local and national cultural trends and perspectives. She formerly hosted GBH’s Basic Black and continues to offer cultural commentary on GBH’s midday talk show Boston Public Radio. Crossley has been a substitute host for the national podcast “Our Body Politic” and is a frequent commentator on local and national television, radio, and podcast programs.

She has won multiple TV, radio, and film awards, including the prestigious Gold Baton DuPont Columbia Award and an Academy Award (“Oscar”) nomination for her producer/writer/director work on the documentary series, “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years.” She is the first African American to be nominated in the Documentary Feature category. She has also earned top honors for both her GBH Boston commentaries and her hosting/interviewing skills, including local and national Emmys, and National Headliner and National Association of Black Journalists awards, plus awards from the Associated Press, RTNDA, Edward R. Murrow, Clarion, and the Public Media Journalists Association.

Crossley has been quoted in a variety of publications, including The Washington Post and Vanity Fair. She was the subject of a major feature published in the August 2021 issue of Boston Magazine.

She is a former producer for ABC News 20/20 and a former Visiting Fellow of the Council of Independent Colleges (formerly Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow).

Crossley was both a Nieman Fellow and an Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard University and was honored as a distinguished alumna of Wellesley College in 2013. In 2017, she joined Wellesley’s Board of Trustees. Crossley holds six Honorary Degrees: a 2005 Doctorate of Arts Degree from Pine Manor College, a 2009 Doctorate of Humane Letters from Cambridge College, a 2018 Doctorate of Humane Letters from Wheaton College, a 2022 Doctorate of Humane Letters from Tufts University, a 2024 Doctorate of Humane Letters from Franklin College, and a 2025 Doctorate of Humane Letters from Lasell University. She is also featured in “The History Makers,” a national digital archive preserving the personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans.

She has received many community awards, including being named one of three 2023 Distinguished Bostonians by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and, in 2022, one of four recipients of the Governor’s Award from Mass Humanities. “Get Konnected” named her one of 2021’s 50 Most Influential Women of Color in Boston. And in 2019, she received both the Yankee Quill Award from the New England Newspaper and Press Association and the Justice in Action Award from Jane Doe, Inc. In 2017, Old South Church honored her with the Open Door Award.

She is also featured in the 2011 book, “Boston’s Inspirational Women,” co-authored by award-winning photographer Bill Brett, and writers Kerry Brett and Carol Beggy.