Elise Labott is the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Labott is a leading journalist specializing in U.S. foreign policy and global affairs. She is an adjunct professor at American University’s School of International Service and the author of Cosmopolitics, a Substack publication focusing on U.S. foreign policy and global affairs. Labott is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Zivvy News, a nonprofit digital platform that engages youth on political and global issues, civic engagement, and media literacy. Most recently, Labott was a contributing editor to Politico and served as a columnist for Foreign Policy. As CNN’s global affairs correspondent until 2018, she covered seven secretaries of state and reported from more than eighty countries. During her eighteen years with CNN, she reported on many major global events as part of the network’s award-winning coverage, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Arab Spring, the rise of ISIS, the invasion of Ukraine, and tensions with North Korea from the demilitarized zone. Her extensive reporting on the Arab Spring uprisings took her to Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, and she was part of CNN’s award-winning coverage of the 2011 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the life of Ambassador Chris Stevens. Labott also covered the Israeli war with Lebanon in 2006, Pakistan’s state of emergency in 2007, the war between Russia and Georgia, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s historic trip to Libya in 2007. She also contributed to CNN’s multi-award-winning Freedom Project, which produced original reports, articles, and documentaries on human trafficking. In 2010, she traveled across Afghanistan with U.S. reconstruction teams. Labott has interviewed several heads of state and international newsmakers, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Pakistan’s late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, several African leaders, and numerous foreign ministers across the globe.
Before joining CNN in 2000, Labott covered the United Nations and foreign policy issues for ABC News, Agence France-Presse, and other publications. She serves as a global ambassador for Vital Voices, an organization empowering female entrepreneurs worldwide, and is on the advisory committee of Global Kids DC, a program introducing high school students in underserved communities to international affairs. Labott has a master’s degree in media studies from the New School of Social Research and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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