Lourdes "Lulu" Garcia-Navarro is an American journalist and an Opinion Audio podcast host 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 was the host of

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's ''Weekend Edition Sunday'' from 2017 to 2021, when she left NPR after 17 years at the network. Previously a foreign correspondent, she served as NPR's Jerusalem bureau chief from April 2009 to the end of 2012. Her coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and her vivid dispatches of the Arab Spring uprisings brought Garcia-Navarro wide acclaim and five awards in 2012, including the

Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...

and Peabody Awards for her coverage of the Libyan revolt. She then moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, covering South America. Her series on the Amazon rainforest was a Peabody finalist and won an Edward R. Murrow award for best news series.

Early life and education

Garcia-Navarro was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. She has stated that her parents "are Cuban and Panamanian," and that she grew up in Miami. Garcia-Navarro studied international relations at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and later obtained a Master's degree in journalism at the

City University London City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...

Career

She started her career working as a freelance journalist for the BBC World Service and

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

, traveling to Cuba, Syria, Panama and several European countries on assignment for the two organizations. She was hired by

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as a producer in 1999 and later worked for the news agency's radio division. AP dispatched Garcia-Navarro to Kosovo in 1999; Colombia in 2000; Afghanistan in 2001; Israel in 2002; and Iraq from 2002 to 2004. Garcia-Navarro traveled to Iraq on assignment before the 2003 war and was among the few journalists that covered the invasion as a unilateral reporter. Garcia-Navarro joined

in November 2004 as

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

bureau chief. She moved to

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 ...

in January 2008, where she oversaw NPR's Iraq coverage for more than a year. She moved to Jerusalem in the spring of 2009. She opened NPR's Brazil bureau in April 2013. Garcia-Navarro was awarded the 2006

Daniel Schorr Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010) was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his te ...

Journalism Prize for her work in Mexico. She belonged to teams that received the 2005 Peabody Award and the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award, which recognized NPR's Iraq coverage. In February 2011, Garcia-Navarro was one of the first reporters to report from eastern Libya as the uprising was gaining strength. She reported for months from rebel-held Benghazi, Tripoli and the western mountains as rebel forces fought pitched battles against Col. Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Garcia-Navarro's front line reports made her among the most praised journalists covering the Arab Spring. Besides the Murrow and Peabody awards, she received the 2012 City University in London XCity Award, the Outstanding Correspondent

Gracie Award The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contr ...

, and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award. From her base in Brazil, Garcia-Navarro covered political protests, the

Zika virus ''Zika virus'' (ZIKV; pronounced or ) is a member of the virus family ''Flaviviridae''. It is spread by daytime-active '' Aedes'' mosquitoes, such as '' A. aegypti'' and '' A. albopictus''. Its name comes from the Ziika Forest of Uganda, w ...

and the Olympics. She became the new regular host of NPR's ''Weekend Edition Sunday'' on January 8, 2017. She later complemented that role by co-hosting the Saturday edition of the network's ''

Up First ''Up First'' is a daily news podcast by the American media organization NPR, which releases an episode every weekday at 6 a.m. ET, and Saturdays and Sundays by 8 a.m ET. ''Up First'' gives a brief overview of each news item in its weekday and Sat ...

'' podcast with ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' host

Scott Simon Scott Simon (born March 16, 1952) is an American journalist and the host of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' on NPR. Early life Simon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of comedian Ernie Simon and actress Patricia Lyons.

. On September 9, 2021, she announced she would leave NPR as of October 17, 2021.

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announced on September 30, 2021, that Garcia-Navarro would join its Opinion Audio team to anchor a new podcast to "explore the personal side of opinion". The company further announced on May 19, 2022, that the podcast — ''First Person'' — would debut on June 9, 2022.

Personal life

Garcia-Navarro is married to ''

Times of London ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'' journalist James Hider. They have a daughter. In 2017, Garcia-Navarro became a US citizen.

Awards

Journalism Prize * Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award *

Lowell Thomas Award Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler, best remembered for publicising T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). He was also involved in promoting the Cinerama widescree ...

* Edward R. Murrow Award * Peabody Award *Outstanding Correspondent

*City University in London XCity Award

References

External links

NPR: Lulu Garcia-Navarro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia-Navarro, Lulu American women journalists NPR personalities Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Journalists from London 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists Georgetown University alumni Alumni of City, University of London People with acquired American citizenship 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Members of the Inter-American Dialogue