Diane Sawyer is an ABC News anchor, tackling some of the biggest
issues of our time in new ways with original reporting, prime-time
specials, long-form interviews and in-depth investigations. One of the
most respected journalists in the world, she has traveled the globe
delivering thorough and breaking news reports and conducted interviews
with almost every major newsmaker of our time. Her prime-time
documentaries have won critical acclaim for shedding light on
difficult and previously underreported topics, including her
comprehensive reporting on the U.S. foster care system and realities
of poverty in America. In 2017, she helped lead ABC News to win an
Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television.

In 2019, Sawyer continued to produce stories that resonated with
Americans when she documented the impact of screen time, technology
and social media on families across the country. She also had
exclusive interviews with Demi Moore, Cameron Douglas and Julie
Andrews on their new memoirs.

Recently, Sawyer reported on hard-working women facing sexual
harassment and assault at their jobs. The one-hour special featured
potential solutions and gave a voice to women whose lack of time,
money and social media influence hinder their willingness to file
complaints out of fear of losing their jobs.

Under Sawyer’s leadership, the acclaimed and award-winning “Hidden
America” series has expanded into ongoing reports across ABC News to
shine a light on the people, places and stories of struggle and hope
that are not well known or apparent to many in America. The reports
also spotlight the creative and innovative actions of some
extraordinary Americans to help people in their communities.

She and her team of producers spent two years in the hills of
Appalachia reporting the February 2009 special, “A Hidden America:
Children of the Mountains,” which won a Peabody Award and a Robert
F. Kennedy Journalism Award. In 2011, Sawyer continued her reporting
on poverty, focusing on the American Indian population with “A
Hidden America: Children of the Plains.” In October 2012, Sawyer
documented the violence plaguing Chicago—America’s third-largest
city—in “Hidden America: Don’t Shoot I Want to Grow Up.” In
addition to extensive reporting from a war-torn community, she
facilitated a solutions-based discussion between members of several
rival gangs to see what, if anything, could be done to reverse the
alarming pattern of violence and murder in the streets. In May 2013,
Sawyer reported from Strawberry Mansion, one of the most dangerous
schools in the United States for the last five years. With
unprecedented access inside the Philadelphia high school, Sawyer gave
viewers an up-close look at what it’s like to teach, learn and try
to gain a foothold in life there, resulting in a Deadline Club Award
win for ABC News. In 2015, she investigated incarceration for the
third time in almost two decades in “A Nation of Women Behind
Bars”; and in 2016, Sawyer delivered another hard-hitting
investigation with her fourth special on prisons and jails with
“Hidden America: Inside Rikers Island.” The piece was a critical
look at the notorious institution’s history of violence and proposed
reforms, including an interview with Commissioner Joseph Ponte. The
next year, she chronicled a new reality of people working harder than
ever but struggling to stay in the middle class. In “My Reality: A
Hidden America,” Sawyer traveled coast to coast to explore issues of
opportunity, income inequality and community solutions.

Highlights throughout her career include her 2017 interview with
Olympic gold medalist and television personality Caitlyn Jenner two
years after the groundbreaking ABC News special where Jenner talked
publicly about her transgender journey for the first time, which won
the GLAAD Outstanding TV Journalism and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia
Awards; her sit-down with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in
the first televised interview on her book, “Hard Choices”; her
exclusive with Jaycee Dugard five years after their first sit-down to
discuss life after captivity; the interview with President Barack
Obama as he made a case for military strikes in Syria; a one-on-one
with Amanda Knox, the college junior who became the center of a
dramatic murder trial in Italy; the first joint interview with
outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and General David Petraeus
in Afghanistan; and the first interview with Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton after the U.S. took military action in Libya.

Among other highlights, Sawyer brought viewers audio recordings of the
never-before-heard interviews with former first lady Jacqueline
Kennedy recorded in the months after her husband’s assassination and
spoke exclusively with Caroline Kennedy in 2011. In addition, when
Japan was hit with a devastating combination of earthquake, tsunami
and nuclear emergency in March 2011, Sawyer was the only evening news
anchor to report on the aftermath live from Japan. She also reported
from Southeast Asia in the wake of the deadly 2005 tsunami; from
Moscow, where she made her way into the office of Boris Yeltsin at the
pinnacle of the Soviet coup; from Egypt during the Gulf War, where she
interviewed President Hosni Mubarak; and Amman, Jordan, where she
interviewed King Hussein and Queen Noor. During the Iraq War, she
conducted an exclusive interview with one of the main architects of
Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons program, Dr. Rihab Taha,
nicknamed “Dr. Germ.”

Back home in the U.S., Sawyer reported from New Orleans on the
devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in fall 2005. She also
conducted a live, exclusive interview with President George W. Bush
amid widespread criticism of his administration’s handling of the
storm. On Sept. 11, 2001, along with Charles Gibson, Sawyer began the
network’s award-winning coverage of the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon. In the days that followed, she reported live
from ground zero and later interviewed more than 60 widows who gave
birth after the World Trade Center disaster.

From 2009 to 2014, Sawyer was the anchor of “World News with Diane
Sawyer,” leading ABC’s flagship broadcast to new heights. During
her final season as anchor, the program delivered its most-watched
season in six years. In 2011, Sawyer created the broadcast’s
signature “Made in America” series that focused on products
manufactured in the United States and ways to support American jobs
and the economy. The series notably reported that the 2012 USA Olympic
team’s opening ceremony uniforms had been made overseas.

Sawyer’s reporting has been recognized with numerous awards,
including duPonts, Emmys®, Peabodys, the grand prize of the premier
Investigative Reporters and Editors Association, an IRTS Lifetime
Achievement Award and the USC Distinguished Achievement in Journalism
Award. In 1997, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of
Fame.

Sawyer joined ABC News in February 1989 as co-anchor of
“Primetime.” In addition to that role, she was named co-anchor of
“Good Morning America” in January 1999 and held the post until
taking over the “World News” anchor chair in December 2009.

Prior to joining ABC News, Sawyer spent nine years at CBS News, making
history as the first female correspondent of “60 Minutes.” She
also co-anchored the “CBS Morning News” and was CBS News’ State
Department correspondent. While at CBS, she covered the 1980, ‘84
and ‘88 national conventions as a floor and then podium
correspondent.

Sawyer was part of the President Nixon transition team from 1974 to
1975 and assisted Nixon in the writing of his memoirs in 1974 and
1975. She began her career in broadcasting in 1967 in Louisville,
Kentucky, where she was a reporter for WLKY-TV until 1970.

A native of Glasgow, Kentucky, and raised in Louisville, Sawyer
received a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College and completed a
semester of law school before embarking on a career in broadcasting.
