Alissa Johannsen Rubin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, currently serving as the

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

Bureau chief for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. She has spent much of her career covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

Early life and education

Alissa Johannsen Rubin was born and raised in New York City. She attended Brown University, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in

renaissance studies Renaissance studies (also ''Renaissance and Early Modern Studies'') is the interdisciplinary study of the Renaissance and early modern period. The field of study often incorporates knowledge from history, art history, literature, music, architectu ...

. She received a

Mellon Fellowship The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

to study at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where she received her M.A. in 1986.

Career

In 1997 Rubin joined the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. With the paper, she covered Iraq, Afghanistan and, France, and the Balkans. In August 2007, Rubin was named deputy bureau chief in the

bureau of ''The New York Times''. In 2009, Rubin became the chief of The Times's bureau in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, Afghanistan. Rubin was seriously injured in a helicopter crash covering the war in northern Iraq on August 16, 2014. She suffered multiple fractures but was able to dictate a report of the accident. The crash killed the helicopter's pilot and injured others, including Vian Dakhil, a

Yazidi Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...

member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq.

Awards

Rubin won the 2016

Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic R ...

for "thoroughly reported and movingly written accounts giving voice to Afghan women who were forced to endure unspeakable cruelties." In 2015, she won the John Chancellor Award from the Columbia Journalism School for her career of 35 years reporting on Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. Rubin won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1992 writing about the reality versus politics of abortion in the 1990s.

References

External links

Rubin's posts from "At War: Notes from the Front Lines"
blog at ''The New York Times'' * Interview with Rubin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Alissa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American expatriates in France Jewish American journalists Jewish women writers American women war correspondents Los Angeles Times people The New York Times writers Place of birth missing (living people) Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents Brown University alumni Columbia University alumni 21st-century American Jews