Maureen Orth

Maureen Orth’s award winning career began as one of the first women writers at Newsweek. Currently a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, she has profiled everyone from Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel to Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift, as well as researching and writing groundbreaking pieces on Woody Allen and Michael Jackson, among others. Her far ranging work not only includes the investigation of serial killer Andrew Cunanan but also a bestselling cover for National Geographic on the Virgin Mary.

Her best-selling "Vulgar Favors" about the murder of Gianni Versace, was the basis for season two of FX’s award winning series, "American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace", which won 7 of its 18 nominations at the 2018 Emmy Awards.

Orth serves as a Trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation and is also on the Advisory Board of the College of Letters & Science. In 2016, she was named the Distinguished Alumnus of the Cal Alumni Club of Washington D.C.

Since 2005, Maureen has dedicated much of her life to philanthropy. After first helping build her namesake public school “Escuela Marina Orth” as a young Peace Corps volunteer in Medellin, Colombia, she returned to Colombia in 2005 to found two non-profit foundations: Marina Orth Foundation, a 501c3 public charity, in the United States and Fundacion Marina Orth in Colombia. In 2015, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos awarded Maureen the Order of San Carlos, Colombia’s highest civilian honor for outstanding service to the country. In that year, Refugees International also awarded her the McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Today the Marina Orth Foundation serves 21 schools, and each primary school student has his or her own laptop through the One Laptop Per Child program.