Amna Nawaz

Amna Nawaz, born in Virginia in 1979 to Pakistani parents, developed an early interest in global affairs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also captained the varsity field hockey team, and later a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics. Her career in journalism began after a fellowship at ABC News. She joined NBC in 2003, transitioning to Dateline NBC to work on documentaries and contributing to the investigative unit’s ‘Mortgage Crisis Investigations,’ which received an Emmy nomination in 2008. In 2010, she shared a News & Documentary Emmy Award for the NBC News special ‘Inside the Obama White House.’ Nawaz later served as a correspondent and bureau chief for NBC in Islamabad, Pakistan, and was notably the first foreign journalist granted access to North Waziristan while pregnant with her first daughter.

In 2015, Nawaz moved to ABC News, where she anchored breaking news coverage and led the network’s livestream of the 2016 presidential election. During her tenure at ABC, she hosted the documentary ‘Roberts County: A Year in the Most Pro-Trump Town’ and the podcast series ‘Uncomfortable’ for ABC News Radio. She joined PBS NewsHour in April 2018 and was named Chief Correspondent in June 2021. In January 2023, she became co-anchor and co-managing editor of PBS NewsHour alongside Geoff Bennett. Throughout her career, Nawaz has reported from various locations globally, covering significant events such as the January 6th Capitol attacks, mass shootings, U.S. presidential elections, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and the September 11th attacks. She has interviewed numerous heads of state, international leaders, and U.S. officials, including Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Nawaz has been recognized with four Peabody Awards for her team coverage at PBS NewsHour, including reporting from Israel in 2024, Uvalde, Texas, in 2023, the January 6th insurrection in 2021, and an in-depth series on plastic pollution in 2019. Her documentary work includes ‘Raising the Future’ (2021) and ‘Life After Lockup’ (2022). She also hosted the criminal justice podcast ‘Broken Justice’ (2020) and the pandemic-focused podcast series ‘The Longest Year’ (2021). Notably, in 2019, Nawaz became the first Asian American and the first Muslim American to moderate a U.S. presidential debate. She is a member of prominent organizations including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asian American Journalists Association.