Leila Fadel (born 1981) is a Lebanese American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and the cohost 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 ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...

,'' a role she assumed in 2022. She was previously the network's

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

bureau chief. Fadel has chiefly worked in the Middle East, and received a George Polk Award for her coverage of the Iraq War. She is also known for her coverage of the Arab Spring.

Background

Fadel grew up in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. She was a

Jack Shaheen Jack George Shaheen Jr. (; September 21, 1935 – July 9, 2017) was a writer and lecturer specializing in addressing racial and ethnic stereotypes. He is the author of '' Reel Bad Arabs'' (adapted to a 2006 documentary), ''The TV Arab'' (1984) and ...

Mass Communications scholar and graduated from Northeastern University School of Journalism in 2004.

Career

In 2004, Fadel began her career in journalism at the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' as a crime and higher education reporter. She began covering the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

in 2005 for Knight Ridder. By early 2006, she had completed two postings in

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 ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. Then, she returned to Baghdad for

McClatchy The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

. She also covered the 2006 Lebanon War. She continued in Baghdad for McClatchy through 2009, where she contributed to McClatchy's Baghdad Observer. In 2010, she joined the ''Washington Post'' Middle East team. On February 2, 2011, Fadel and photographer Linda Davidson were among some two dozen journalists arrested by the Egyptian Interior Ministry. The next day, Fadel and Davidson were released, but placed under house arrest at a hotel. Two local ''Post'' employees remained in custody, interpreter Sufian Taha and driver Mansour el-Sayed Mohammed Abo Gouda; according to Fadel, Abo Gouda was beaten. She covered the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...

and its aftermaths in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria for the ''Washington Post''. In July 2012, Fadel was hired by

NPR 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 ...

as Cairo bureau chief and covered the aftermath of the Arab Spring. She is now a national correspondent at

reporting on race and diversity.

Personal

Fadel speaks conversational

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

. In 2006, she stated:

My goal is to find the missing voices, the ones I heard on the streets of Beirut and Saudi Arabia but which were often missing in American media... Great journalism is the ability to capture moments in time, weave them together, and tell the story of all people without condescension, without judgment and without an agenda.

Awards

* 2007 -

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

* 2006 - Katie Award from the Dallas Press Club * 2005 - Print Journalist of the Year honors from the Houston Press Club

Recognition

* In 2008,

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...

interviewed Fadel on ''Bill Moyers' Journal''. * In 2011, Charlie Rose interviewed her on ''The Charlie Rose Show'' with mentor

Anthony Shadid Anthony Shadid (September 26, 1968 – February 16, 2012) was a foreign correspondent for ''The New York Times'' based in Baghdad and Beirut who won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.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 ...

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

* Knight Ridder *

Anthony Shadid Anthony Shadid (September 26, 1968 – February 16, 2012) was a foreign correspondent for ''The New York Times'' based in Baghdad and Beirut who won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.Jack Shaheen Jack George Shaheen Jr. (; September 21, 1935 – July 9, 2017) was a writer and lecturer specializing in addressing racial and ethnic stereotypes. He is the author of '' Reel Bad Arabs'' (adapted to a 2006 documentary), ''The TV Arab'' (1984) and ...

References

External links

NPR
Leila Fadel

''BillMoyers'', April 18, 2008
"Farewell to Iraq"
''McClatchy''
"Interview with News Correspondents in Iraq, Leila Fadel and Ben Lando, at IE University "
March 8, 2010
"Journalist Leila Fadel reflects upon returning from Iraq"
''Daily Kos'', Aug 05, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fadel, Leila American women journalists 1981 births George Polk Award recipients Living people Northeastern University alumni American people of Lebanese descent NPR personalities American journalists of Arab descent 21st-century American women 21st-century American journalists