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Renée Montagne () is an American former
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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 Montagne
from the NPR website
''Renee Montagne''
on
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{{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