Soledad O'Brien
Encyclopedia
María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American Broadcast journalist. She is currently the host of the "In America" documentary unit on CNN, and is best known for anchoring the CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 marquee morning newscast American Morning
American Morning
American Morning is the morning television show on CNN. It premiered in 2001.-About the show:American Morning is hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Zoraida Sambolin & Soledad O'Brien. Others who appear regularly are Rob Marciano with the weather, Sunny Hostin on legal news, and CNN senior medical...

 from July 2003 to April 2007, with Miles O'Brien
Miles O'Brien (journalist)
Miles O'Brien is a broadcast news journalist specializing in aviation, space and technology.-Early life:...

. Their common surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

 is coincidental.

Personal life

O'Brien's parents, both immigrants, met at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 in Baltimore, Maryland in 1958.
My parents were both immigrants—my mother from Cuba, my father from Australia. Both attended daily Mass at the church near campus. Every day my father would offer my mother a ride. Every day, she declined. Finally she said yes. One year later, the day after Christmas, the two of them were married.

O'Brien's parents married in 1958 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 Her father Edward, an Australian (from Toowoomba, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

) of Irish
Irish Australian
Irish Australians have played a long and enduring part in Australia's history. Many came to Australia in the eighteenth century as settlers or as convicts, and contributed to Australia's development in many different areas....

 descent, was a mechanical engineering professor. Her mother, Estella, who is Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...

, was a French and English teacher. O'Brien is the fifth of six children, who all graduated from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

; O'Brien attended Harvard from 1984 to 1988, but did not obtain a degree until she returned in 2000. Her siblings are law professor Maria (born 1961); corporate lawyer Cecilia (born 1962), businessman Tony (born 1963) - who heads a documents company; eye surgeon Estela (born 1964); and anesthesiologist Orestes (born 1967).

At the time, interracial marriage in Maryland was illegal, so O'Brien's parents married in Washington, D.C. where marriage laws were less restrictive. The newly wedded O'Briens then moved to the Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

 community of St. James
St. James, New York
St. James is a census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 13,268 at the 2000 census. St. James is part of the Town of Smithtown, New York, located on the North Shore of Long Island. The zip code is 11780....

, on the affluent North Shore, where O'Brien was born and raised. O'Brien graduated from Smithtown High School East in 1984. On the NPR quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member...

, O'Brien explained that in Spanish her full name means, "The Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude
Nuestra Señora dela Soledad de Porta Vaga
Nuestra Señora de la Soledad de Porta Vaga, also called "Reina de Cavite" and "La Virgen de la Soledad", is the patroness of Cavite City.-Description:...

". When she started working in TV, many people recommended that she change her name, but she refused.

Despite her partial Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 heritage, O'Brien does not speak Spanish fluently. That has resulted in some awkward exchanges with people who assume she does, including former US Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

.
Since 1995, O'Brien has been married to Bradley Raymond, co-head of investment banking at Thomas Weisel Partners
Thomas Weisel Partners
Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. , also known as TWP or Weisel, is a U.S. growth focused investment banking firm based in San Francisco, California....

. Together they have two daughters and twin sons: Sofia Elizabeth (born October 23, 2000); Cecilia (born March 20, 2002); and Charlie and Jackson on August 30, 2004.

Television career

Soledad O'Brien began her career as an associate producer and news writer at WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...

, then the NBC affiliate in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. She joined NBC News in 1991, and was based in New York as a field producer for the Nightly News and Today. O'Brien then worked for three years as a local reporter and bureau chief for San Francisco NBC affiliate KRON. At KRON she was a reporter on "The Know Zone." The program later moved to CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...

 without O'Brien.

O'Brien was featured on a regular segment of the Discovery Channel program The Next Step, holding the position of "Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

 Infogal."

NBC News

O'Brien then anchored MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

's weekend morning show and the cable network's award-winning technology program The Site
The Site
The Site, hosted by Soledad O'Brien, was an hour-long TV program devoted to the Internet revolution. It debuted in July 1996 with MSNBC's launch and aired Monday through Saturday, reaching 35 million homes...

, which aired weeknights from the Spring of 1996 to November 1997.

O'Brien co-anchored Weekend Today with David Bloom
David Bloom
David Bloom was an NBC journalist until his sudden death in 2003 at the age of 39 from deep vein thrombosis...

 beginning July 1999. During that time, she contributed reports for the weekday Today Show and for weekend editions of NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...

, and covered such notable stories as John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane crash and the 1990s school shootings in Colorado
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...

 and Oregon.

American Morning

O'Brien moved to CNN where she joined Miles O'Brien to co-anchor CNN's flagship morning program American Morning from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in July 2003. In 2005, she covered the Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 aftermath in New Orleans, where she interviewed then head of FEMA Michael Brown. On April 16, 2007, reportedly due to lagging ratings, O'Brien was replaced by former Fox News anchor Kiran Chetry
Kiran Chetry
Kiran Carrie Chetry was a co-anchor of CNN's early morning cable news program, American Morning.-Early life:Kiran means "ray of light". Chetry refers to the large traditional caste of rulers and soldiers among Hindus in the Middle Hills of Nepal. Kiran's father Hom Chetry belongs to this caste...

 (O'Brien's co-host at the time, Miles O'Brien
Miles O'Brien (journalist)
Miles O'Brien is a broadcast news journalist specializing in aviation, space and technology.-Early life:...

, was replaced as well; former co-host Bill Hemmer
Bill Hemmer
Bill Hemmer is an American television-news anchor. He is a co-host of America's Newsroom on the Fox News Channel.-Early life and education:...

 had previously moved to Fox News).

Post-American Morning

O'Brien has recently completed a documentary entitled Latino In America documenting the lives of Latinos living in America. She continues to work as a reporter for CNN, mainly hosting "In America" documentaries and occasionally filling in for Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...

 on Anderson Cooper 360. She also anchored exit poll
Exit poll
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual...

 coverage during CNN's coverage of the primaries and caucuses in the 2008 United States presidential race
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...

. She also has filled in for Paula Zahn on Paula Zahn Now whenever Zahn was unable to make the broadcast (Zahn has since stopped working for CNN as of August 2, 2007).

O'Brien anchored a CNN special, Black in America
Black in America
Black In America is a multi-part series of documentaries hosted by reporter Soledad O'Brien on CNN. The series is about various issues regarding blacks which includes panel discussions on issues facing the black community, and a look at the culture of black families in America, men and women.It...

, in July 2007. The program documented the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families forty years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. In the first installment, Soledad O'Brien investigated how James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray was an American criminal convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr....

, an armed robber and escaped convict, had already spent a year on the run just a month before his path collided with Dr. King in Memphis, Tennessee. In "The Black Woman & Family," O'Brien explored the varied experiences of black women and families and investigated the disturbing statistics of single parenthood, racial disparities between students and the devastating toll of HIV/AIDS.

O'Brien drew criticism from FactCheck.org on September 8, 2008, for making a false assertion during an interview with a McCain campaign spokesperson, claiming that vice presidential candidate Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...

, as the governor in Alaska, had slashed the special education budget by 62%, when, in fact, she had increased it. O'Brien was also criticized for these claims by other sources, including the McCain/Palin campaign.

Honors and recognitions

O'Brien's work has been honored several times, including a local Emmy for her work co-hosting the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

's The Know Zone.

In 2007, O'Brien was awarded the NAACP President's Award.

She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists
National Association of Black Journalists
The National Association of Black Journalists is an organization of African American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C...

, which named her the Journalist of the Year 2010 and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the advancement of Hispanic journalists in the United States and Puerto Rico...

. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for all students.She also serves on the board of directors of The Harlem School of the Arts
The Harlem School of the Arts
The Harlem School of the Arts is a school in Harlem, New York. It was founded in 1964 by the soprano Dorothy Maynor, and offers its programs to students of all ages. Mezzo-soprano Betty Allen succeeded Maynor as director in 1979. Other directors include Camille Akeju, Kakuna Karina and DeeDee...

.

She was named to Irish American Magazines "Top 100 Irish Americans" on two occasions. She is also on Black Enterprise
Black Enterprise
Black Enterprise is a monthly U.S. magazine which describes itself as "the premier business news and investment resource for African Americans" and claims a readership of 3.7 million. It was founded in 1970 by Earl G. Graves, Sr.. The publication is known for its annual listing of the largest...

 magazine's 2005 Hot List. Also in 2005, she was awarded "Groundbreaking Latina of the Year" award by Catalina magazine
Catalina magazine
Catalina magazine was founded in 2001 by a Latina journalist to break the stereotypes of Hispanics in the US media and entertainment. Cover models have included Daisy Fuentes, Eva La Rue, Mario Lopez, Ricardo Antonio Chavira, María Conchita Alonso, and Natalie Morales...

.

O'Brien has given several keynote speeches over the years, including the undergraduate commencement at Bryant University
Bryant University
Bryant University is a private university located in Smithfield, Rhode Island, U.S., that grants the degrees of bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and master's degrees in business, taxation and accounting. Until August 2004, it was known as Bryant College...

 in May 2007, where she was presented with a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree, the convocation speech at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

's Commencement in May 2007, a speech at Binghamton University
Binghamton University
Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...

 commencement in December 2007, and the keynote speech at the 2008 annual National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Conference in Boston, MA in March 2008.

In April 2008, she became the first recipient of the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award, an award created in her name by Morehouse School of Medicine. "The award was created to recognize her accomplishments and willingness to be a voice for the voiceless in our society, and her determination to cover stories that might otherwise go untold. It will be given annually to mid-career professionals who serve as catalysts for social change in their given fields."

She has been named in People's 50 Most Beautiful in 2001 and in People en Español
People en Español
People en Español is a Spanish-language American magazine published by Time Inc. that debuted in 1996, originally as the Spanish-language edition of its publication People...

's 50 Most Beautiful in 2004.

In November 2008, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is part of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 awarded CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien the Goodermote Humanitarian Award for her efforts while reporting on the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

“Ms. O’Brien has shown the world tragedies of human conflict, natural disasters, chronic and infectious diseases,” said Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “In addition to focusing attention on the people impacted, she has shed a light on how humanitarian efforts can help alleviate suffering and where current efforts have fallen short. Ms. O’Brien has challenged all of us to think and act in ways that offer humanitarian answers to the problems of the moment and the problems of the century, including public health issues.”

During a panel discussion for the 50th National Convention for Delta Sigma Theta
Delta Sigma Theta
Delta Sigma Theta is a non-profit Greek-lettered sorority of college-educated women who perform public service and place emphasis on the African American community. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women at Howard University...

 sorority in New Orleans, LA, O'Brien announced that she would be inducted as an honorary member of the sorority in February 2011. She was inducted on February 7, 2011 during the Sorority's 22nd Annual Delta Days in the Nation’s Capital.

Career timeline

  • July 1999–July 2003: Weekend Today
    Weekend Today
    Weekend Today is the unofficial title of the weekend editions of Today, an American morning news and talk show which airs daily on NBC.-History:...

     co-anchor
  • July 2003–April 2007 American Morning
    American Morning
    American Morning is the morning television show on CNN. It premiered in 2001.-About the show:American Morning is hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Zoraida Sambolin & Soledad O'Brien. Others who appear regularly are Rob Marciano with the weather, Sunny Hostin on legal news, and CNN senior medical...

     co-anchor

November 2010 "The Next Big Story: My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities" written by Soledad O'Brien and Rose Marie Arce published.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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