Elizabeth Farnsworth (born 1943) is an American journalist and author of the memoir,
A Train Through Time – A Life, Real and Imagined
' (February, 2017).

Early life and education

Farnsworth was born Elizabeth Fink in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in Topeka, Kansas, where her family arrived as pioneers in the 19th century. Farnsworth is a graduate of

Topeka High School Topeka High School (THS) is a public secondary school in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It serves students in grades 9 to 12, and is one of five high schools operated by the Topeka USD 501 school district. In the 2010–2011 school year, there ...

and

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

, where she graduated magna cum laude. She earned an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

Latin American History The term ''Latin America'' primarily refers to the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in the New World. Before the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the region was home to many indigenous peoples, a number of ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and lived in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

for extended periods. Farnsworth first appeared regularly on public television in 1975 as a panelist covering Latin America on the national television program "World Press", produced by KQED in San Francisco. In the 1970s and 80’s she contributed articles to the San Francisco Chronicle, Foreign Policy, and Mother Jones, among other publications. With Stephen Talbot she wrote a column, Dispatches, for The Nation. With Eric Leenson and Richard Feinberg, she wrote about the economic blockade against Chile during the years

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

was president. That research became a book, El Bloqueo Invisible, in Buenos Aires in 1973. In 1984 she became a contributing correspondent to ''The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour'', later known as ''

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events. Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the prog ...

'' and then ''PBS Newshour''. In 1995 she became chief correspondent and principal substitute anchor, and in 1999 became senior correspondent and head of the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

office. From 1984 until 2005, she reported in print and on television from numerous countries, among them:Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Israel (the West Bank and Gaza), Botswana, Malawi and Turkey. Her 2001 four-part series on the AIDS crisis (produced by Joanne Elgart Jennings) received the 2001 Silver World Medal from the New York Festivals and a national Emmy nomination. In 1983 Farnsworth co-produced (with Stephen Talbot) The Gospel and Guatemala, which won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival and aired on PBS. In 1990 she co-produced (with John Knoop) Thanh’s War, which aired on PBS and won a Cine Golden Eagle. In 2008 Farnsworth and co-producer/director Patricio Lanfranco released The Judge and the General, a feature-length documentary film about the personal transformation of Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán as he tries to bring Augusto Pinochet to justice for human rights crimes. The film opened at the San Francisco Film Festival, aired on public television on POV, and garnered a 2008 Directors Guild of America nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement and a 2008 Emmy award nomination for Best Historical Documentary. The Judge and the General won a 2010 duPont-Columbia Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. Farnsworth was a Fellow at the Center for Art Environment of the Nevada Art Museum from 2010 to 2013. In June 2013 an exhibit, Fracked: North Dakota’s Oil boom, featuring photographs by Terry Evans and written by Farnsworth, opened at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. After a year, the exhibit traveled to the North Dakota Museum of Art, and since then it has traveled to other cities in North Dakota. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of Northern California and currently a member of that organization’s Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of the UC Berkeley School of Law Human Rights Center. She received an honorary doctorate degree from Washburn College (2021) and Colby College (2002). Farnsworth has been married to Charles E. Farnsworth since 1966. They have three children and six grandchildren. https://www.fieldmuseum.org/at-the-field/exhibitions/fractured-north-dakotas-oil-boom https://placesjournal.org/article/dakota-is-everywhere/ https://www.nevadaart.org/author/terry-evans/

References

External links

Elizabeth Fink Farnsworth
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farnsworth, Elizabeth 1943 births Living people Middlebury College alumni American television personalities American women television personalities Stanford University alumni People from Topeka, Kansas People from Minneapolis