Award-winning journalist and photojournalist Ann Curry, a former NBC News Network anchor and international correspondent, has reported on conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Darfur, Congo, the Central African Republic, Serbia, Lebanon, and Israel; on nuclear tensions from North Korea and Iran and on numerous humanitarian disasters, including the tsunamis in Southeast Asia and Japan, and the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where her appeal via Twitter (@AnnCurry) is credited for helping to speed the arrival of humanitarian planes.
She has contributed groundbreaking journalism on Climate Change, interviewing scientists and native peoples, documenting glacial melt in the Arctic, the Antarctic (where she spent time inside an expedition hut left by Shackleton) and on Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as documenting the deepening drought in the American West. Ann is also known for her focused reporting from inside Iran, giving voice to its women, human rights activists and young people, including Green Revolution activists. She also first broke the news of Iran’s interest in negotiating a nuclear agreement with the outside world.
For her stories Ann has also traveled to the South Pole, (from where she delivered the first live network news report to an American audience,) South Africa and Botswana, (where she tracked the AIDS epidemic,) Somalia and Kenya, (where she documented Al Qaeda’s link to Al Shabaab terrorists,) as well to Syria, Chad, Liberia and Pakistan, among other places.
Ann has conducted a long list of exclusive and news breaking interviews, which have included Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, President Ahmadinejad, President Khatami and Foreign Minister Zarif; Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and First Lady Asma al-Assad; Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, President Ali Zadari and President Musharraf; Turkey’s President Erdogan; Saddam Hussein’s close advisor and Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, Sudan’s President Omar Bashir and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir; Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; Chad’s President Idriss Deby; as well as U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George Walker Bush and Barack Obama,
Vice-President Joe Biden, U.S. Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton as well as First Lady Laura Bush, Jill Biden, UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon and António Gutteres, the Dalai Lama, Sir Edmund Hillary, George Clooney, Maya Angelou, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Archbishop Desmond Tutu among many others.
She has also reported and executive produced a twelve-hour documentary series about transformative world events for PBS, entitled “We’ll Meet Again,” and anchored and executive produced a groundbreaking series with Lionsgate about medical care in America, entitled “Chasing the Cure.” She has written articles for National Geographic Magazine, about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the Dalai Lama.
She has taught about journalism ethics, and war and humanitarian reporting as a Sine Fellow at American University and given TedTalks, including one about trust and Journalism: https://www.ted.com/talks/ann_curry_how_to_restore_trust_in_journalism
Ann has won numerous awards for journalism including 7 national news Emmys and many Edward R. Murrow awards, Gracie Allen Awards and National Headliner Awards. The NAACP has honored her with an Excellence in Reporting award. Women in Communications has awarded her a Matrix. The Centre for Responsible Leadership honored her for Truth in Media. Ann has also been given numerous humanitarian awards, including from Refugees International, Americares, Save the Children and most recently, the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Global Citizenship. An award she especially prizes is a Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, for her dedication to reporting about genocide.