Monica Jones Kaufman Pearson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on (1947-10-20)October 20, 1947, and attended Catholic school.

Her mother, Hattie Wallace Jones Edmondson, worked at the Louisville Post Office and was one of their first African-American women employees.

[2] While in high school, Pearson worked at the local black-owned radio stations where she read prayers and performed voiceovers for religious programming.

[2] After moving to Atlanta in 1975, Pearson worked at WSB-TV for 37 years[1] and was the first female and first African-American to anchor the daily evening news for the station.

[5] She currently hosts The Monica Pearson Show on AJC, a video and podcast interview program, for local newspaper The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

[1] After retiring in 2012, she was honored for her years of service to improving the lives of Georgia's citizens on- and off-air by the U.S. House of Representatives.