Clarissa Ward has spent the past twenty years reporting from hot zones around the world, from Syria to Ukraine to Somalia to Gaza. Beginning her career in 2003 at the Fox News International Desk, she covered stories ranging from the capture of Saddam Hussein, the death of Pope John Paul II, and the Israeli-Lebanese War. In 2007, she embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq, before becoming a Moscow-based news correspondent for ABC. Shortly thereafter, she moved to CBS, and in 2015 was named Christiane Amanpour’s successor as the chief international correspondent for CNN. In addition to her seven Emmy Awards, Ward received a prestigious Peabody Award in 2012 for her coverage inside Syria during the uprising.
Over the past year, Ward’s tireless reporting has been instrumental in conveying information from the Ukrainian frontlines. Traveling from Kharkiv to Kyiv, her coverage focused on life for children and wounded civilians. Most recently, Ward has been on the ground in Israel and Palestine, documenting the escalating conflict at great risk to her own life. This past year, she was awarded the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award for decades of uncovering the violence that underpins our world.