Jeff Zeleny

Jeffrey Dean Zeleny (born June 10, 1973) is an American journalist and the Chief National Affairs Correspondent for CNN. He previously was Senior Washington Correspondent for ABC News. During his newspaper career, he won a Pulitzer Prize with the ''Chicago Tribune''.

Early life

Jeffrey Dean Zeleny was born on June 10, 1973, in Exeter, Nebraska, the son of Diane Naomi (née Yeck) and Robert Dean Zeleny. He has two older brothers, James Robert Zeleny and Michael Jon Zeleny, and was raised with them on the family farm.

His ancestry on both sides of his family is Czech, with most of his ancestors coming from Bohemia and some from Moravia. ''Zeleny'' is the Czech word for "green."

Zeleny is also openly gay.

Education

Zeleny was educated at Exeter High School, a public high school in the small town of Exeter, Nebraska. As a student, he contributed sports stories to the ''York News-Times'' in neighboring York County.

Zeleny attended the University of Nebraska, where he studied journalism and political science. He graduated in 1996. While at the university, he was the editor of the '' Daily Nebraskan'', the school's newspaper. He also played trumpet in the University of Nebraska Cornhusker Marching Band.

Career

After interning for newspapers like ''The Wall Street Journal'', the ''Florida Times-Union'' and the ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' in college, Zeleny started working for ''The Des Moines Register'' in 1996. Although he originally planned to be a sports reporter, the importance of the Iowa caucuses led to him becoming a political specialist.

In 2000, he left to write for ''The Chicago Tribune''. He covered the presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004 for the paper. While at the ''Tribune'', he won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for his work on a series about air traffic control problems nationwide.

In 2006, ''The New York Times'' hired him to cover politics, and he covered the 2012 presidential election for the paper, while being their lead reporter. At President Barack Obama's 100-day press conference in April 2009, Zeleny received attention from media blogs for asking President Obama how he was "surprised, troubled, enchanted, and humbled" during his first days in office.

Zeleny was hired in February 2013 by ABC News to be their senior Washington correspondent and to file stories for the website. He was honored by The Stuttering Foundation in May 2013. He joined CNN in March 2015, and in January 2017 was named Senior White House Correspondent. In January 2021, Zeleny was named Chief National Affairs Correspondent.

References

External links

ABC Medianet biographyCNN Press Room press release
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeleny, Jeff
1973 births
ABC News personalities
CNN people
University of Nebraska alumni
Living people
American people of Bohemian descent
American people of Moravian descent
American television reporters and correspondents
Pulitzer Prize winners
American LGBT journalists
Gay men