Renée Montagne () is an American former
radio
Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and was the co-host (with
Steve Inskeep and
David Greene) of
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
's weekday morning
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...
program, ''
Morning Edition'', from May 2004 to November 11, 2016. Montagne and Inskeep succeeded longtime host
Bob Edwards, initially as interim replacements, and Greene joined the team in 2012. Montagne had served as a correspondent and occasional host since 1989.
She usually broadcast from NPR West in
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...
,
a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
suburb.
Early life
Montagne was born in December 1948 in
Oceanside, California
Oceanside is a beach city in the North County (San Diego area), North County area of San Diego County, California, United States. The city had a population of 174,068 at the 2020 United States census, making it the most populous city in the Nort ...
,
into a
Marine Corps family. As is common in the lives of
children of career military families, she moved often while growing up, including living in Hawaii and various places on the West Coast.
An alumna of
Cupertino High School, she was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2012. She graduated
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
in 1973 with a degree in English.
Career
Montagne got her start in radio as news director for
KPOO community radio in San Francisco while attending UC–Berkeley. She also worked for
Pacific News Service in San Francisco.
From 1980 through 1986, she worked in New York City as a freelance reporter and producer for both NPR and the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...
. During this period, she covered the arts and science for NPR. From 1987 to 1989, she was co-host with
Robert Siegel of NPR's evening news magazine, ''
All Things Considered''.
In 1990, Montagne covered the release of
Nelson Mandela from prison in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
. She remained in South Africa for three years focusing on the area, where she won, along with the NPR reporting team, the
Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for their coverage of South Africa's first fully democratic elections.
In May 2004, Montagne and Steve Inskeep became interim co-hosts for NPR's ''Morning Edition'', replacing long-time host
Bob Edwards who was reassigned as a senior correspondent. They became permanent co-hosts in December 2004.
The following year, Montagne went to Rome to cover the funeral of
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
for NPR's ''Morning Edition''. She also has traveled frequently to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
to report on the war that began in 2001. She has been recognized by the
Overseas Press Club for her work from Afghanistan.
In 2011, Montagne was among the
news anchors who attended the traditional off-the-record luncheon with the U.S. president (in this case,
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
) in advance of his
State of the Union Address.
The announcement went public on July 18, 2016, that Montagne would be leaving NPR's ''Morning Edition'' after co-hosting it with
Steve Inskeep for 12 years.
Her final ''Morning Edition'' as co-host was November 11, 2016. A month later, as Special Correspondent/Occasional Host for NPR News, Montagne embarked on a new project: an NPR/collaboration called ''Lost Mothers''.
Montagne, along with ProPublica reporting partner
Nina Martin, spent the next year investigating why women are far more likely to die due to giving birth in the U.S. than all other developed nations.
Their investigation focused on why the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is going up while it's going down in nearly every other nation; why African-American women are 3-to-4 times more likely to die than white women; and what's being done to reverse these dire statistics. The series set off a national conversation at a time when few Americans knew that, in the U.S., even a healthy woman with a perfect pregnancy and good health care risks dying, or nearly dying, in childbirth.
The stories, aired and published from 2017 through mid-2018, has been credited with inspiring laws in several states, as well as bills at the federal level aimed at protecting birthing mothers. In a 2018 Forbes op-ed arguing for a federal law to end America's “maternal death epidemic,” Senator
Tammy Duckworth
Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and retired Army National Guard Lieutenant colonel (United States), lieutenant colonel serving since 2017 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States ...
cited the NPR/ProPublica investigation ''Lost Mothers''. Duckworth also linked directly to Montagne's NPR story on how California succeeded in cutting in half its maternal mortality rate. On 12/21/201
HR 1318“Preventing Maternal Deaths Act” was signed into law – a law that incorporated the Senate bill Duckworth had championed in the op-ed.
Renee Montagne announced her retirement on January 23, 2025.
Awards and recognition
*
1995 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of South African elections
*
Overseas Press Club recognition for coverage of the
Afghanistan war
*
National Association of Black Journalists recognition for a reporting series on Black musicians who fought in wars during the 20th Century
*
Harvard Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting - 2018
*
George Polk Award - 2017
*
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...
- 2017
*
New York Academy of Medicine Health Equity Journalism Prize - 2018
*
National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award (category "Online") - 2018
*
Sigma Delta Chi Award Society of Professional Journalists ("Online Reporting" in category "Public Service") - 2017
*
National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award (category "Digital Media") - 2018
*
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
Finalist (“Explanatory Reporting” category) - 2018
*
Edward R. Murrow Award (category "Digital Media") - 2018
*
American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine Awards Finalist (“Public Interest” category) - 2018
*
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...
"The 2018 Best American Magazine Writing" collection
*"The 100 Most Engaging Stories of 2017",
Chartbeat
*
Gracie Award/”Alliance for Women in Media” 2015 for "Outstanding Individual Achievement - Afghanistan Coverage" and “Outstanding Anchor/News Magazine” (NPR's Morning Edition)
*Global Women's Rights Award 2011 "Feminist Majority Foundation" Cited coverage of women in Afghanistan
*University of Denver Anvil of Freedom Award – 2008
References
External links
People at NPR: Renee Montagnefrom the NPR website
''Renee Montagne''on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montagne, Renee
American radio journalists
NPR personalities
American reporters and correspondents
Radio personalities from California
Living people
People from San Diego County, California
1948 births
University of California, Berkeley alumni
People from Oceanside, California
Journalists from California
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists