Margo Lillian Jefferson is a former theatre critic at The New York Times and a professor at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts. Jefferson received her Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University, where she graduated cum laude, and her M.S. from Columbia University. She became an associate editor at Newsweek in 1973 and stayed at the magazine until 1978. She then served as an assistant professor at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at New York University from 1979 to 1983 and from 1989 to 1991. Since then she has taught at Columbia University, where she is now Professor of Writing. She joined the Times in 1993, initially as a book reviewer, then went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. She penned the book "On Michael Jackson" about the American performer published in 2006. Jefferson has also appeared on Ken Burns's Jazz as jazz is a subject that interests her. She is also working on two books concerning race and culture in America. 

October 17th, 1947 in Chicago (Age 77)