| |
home > speaker biographies >
media & journalism
speaker biographies
Speaker
PAULA ZAHN
Subjects
media, news
|
 |
Paula Zahn is
anchor for CNN's weeknight primetime evening program, Paula Zahn
Now, an issues-driven program offering live newsmaker interviews and
meaningful discussion and analysis from an exclusive roster of
contributors.
Based in the network's New York bureau, Zahn also hosts People in
the News, CNN's feature-format program with PEOPLE magazine
profiling newsmakers from politics, sports, business, medicine and
entertainment.
Previously, Zahn anchored the network's flagship morning news
program, American Morning with Paula Zahn, which she helped launch
in fall 2001.
In 2003, Zahn anchored and provided the latest news on Operation
Iraqi Freedom, interviewing multiple guests, including family
members of troops, diplomats, Iraqi-Americans and politicians. On
her first day with CNN, Zahn began continuous on-scene coverage of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers in
New York. In the course of that reporting, she interviewed multiple
rescue workers, survivors, dignitaries and officials, including
Jordan's King Abdullah, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, N.Y.
Gov. George Pataki, former U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke and U.S.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, to name a few.
Before joining CNN in September 2001, Zahn most recently was host of
The Edge with Paula Zahn, a daily news program on Fox News Channel.
She joined Fox in 1999 as anchor of its evening news, The Fox
Report. Previously she spent 10 years at CBS News, where she
co-hosted CBS Morning News and anchored the CBS Evening News
Saturday Edition. She also co-anchored the 1994 Olympic Winter games
in Lillehammer, Norway and served as primetime co-host of the 1992
Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France. Earlier, Zahn served as
co-anchor of World News This Morning and anchored news segments of
Good Morning America on ABC. Zahn joined ABC in November 1987 as
anchor of The Health Show.
Zahn began her career at WFAA-TV in Dallas. In 1979 she moved to San
Diego to work for KFMB-TV. Zahn also worked at KPRC-TV in Houston,
WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV) in Boston and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles before
joining ABC News.
Throughout her career, Zahn has interviewed multiple key newsmakers,
including former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, Jimmy
Carter and Gerald Ford, Cuban President Fidel Castro, former Russian
President Mikhail Gorbachev, H.M. Queen Noor of Jordan, former
President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze, former Russian President
Boris Yeltsin, first lady Betty Ford, former Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott, civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael and human rights
activist Winnie Mandela. Zahn has also interviewed athletes and
artists, including tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, actress
Faye Dunaway, baseball player Ted Williams, actress Katherine
Hepburn, actor Warren Beatty, baseball player Joe DiMaggio and
actress Sophia Loren.
Zahn has received numerous honors and awards, including a 1994 Emmy
for Outstanding Coverage of a Continuing News Story for her
reporting on mainstreaming the mentally disabled into education, the
National Commission of Working Women Broadcasting Award and an AWRT
Award for reporting on gender bias in education. Zahn also received
an Albert Einstein College of Medicine Spirit Achievement Award, the
Second Annual Cancer Awareness Award by the Congressional Families
Action for Cancer Awareness, the Spirit of Life award from the City
of Hope Cancer Center and a citation from New York's Beth Israel
Medical Center for her contributions to the battle against breast
cancer.
Zahn, an experienced cellist who began playing when she was 5, made
her Carnegie Hall debut in 1992 performing with the New York Pops
orchestra.
Zahn earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Stephens College
in Columbia, Mo., attending on a cello scholarship.
|
 |
 |
|
56 Poquonock Avenue
Windsor, Connecticut 06095
Voice: 860-687-1116
Toll-Free: 800-875-2893
Fax: 860-687-1062
|
|