Clarissa Ward

Clarissa Ward is CNN's chief international correspondent based in London. For over 15 years, Ward has reported from the front lines across the globe from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ukraine to Georgia during the Russian incursion in 2008, and Iran. She was named 2019 Reporter/Correspondent of the Year by the Gracies and is the author of "On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist," a memoir that details her singular career as a conflict reporter and how she has documented the violent remaking of the world from close range.

She has won multiple awards for her reporting: Two George Foster Peabody Awards; two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards; seven Emmy Awards; two Edward R. Murrow Awards for distinguished journalism; honors from the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association; and the 2017 David Kaplan Award from the Overseas Press Club. Ward's intense coverage and insightful reporting illuminate pressing global issues and conflicts, contributing significantly to public understanding.

Ward joined CNN in 2015 from CBS News, where she served as a foreign correspondent for four years and contributed regularly to "60 Minutes." While at CBS, Ward interviewed world leaders like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012 and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in 2013, challenging them on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown inside Syria. Before CBS, Ward spent two years each in Moscow and Beijing for ABC News, covering impactful events like the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the 2008 global food crisis—her coverage of the latter earned her an Emmy Award for Business and Financial Reporting.

Before ABC News, Ward was based in the Middle East for Fox News Channel, covering significant events such as the execution of Saddam Hussein and interviewing prominent figures like General David Petraeus and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. Ward's career in journalism began in 2002 as an intern at CNN's Moscow bureau. She has since been stationed in diverse global hotspots including Baghdad, Beijing, Beirut, Moscow, New York, and London.

Ward speaks fluent French and Italian, is conversational in Russian, Arabic, and Spanish, and has basic Mandarin proficiency. She graduated with distinction from Yale University and received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Middlebury College in Vermont in 2013.