The Associated Press correspondent visited campus as part of Elon’s partnership in the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium, speaking with nine classes and dozens of students.
A week after publishing an Associated Press article detailing the peace talks between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray regional representatives, journalist Cara Anna spent two days on Elon’s campus sharing insights from her career as an East Africa correspondent.
The Associated Press correspondent visited the school Nov. 14-15 and spoke with nine classes, including four sections of Communications in a Global Age. Anna also enjoyed a lunch with members of the elondocs documentary program.
Anna is uniquely qualified to discuss East Africa having lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, for the past six years. Her work has garnered several accolades with her team’s Pulitzer Center-supported coverage of Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict receiving a Pulitzer Prize nomination. The team also won the AP’s top journalism award in 2021. Anna’s important and insightful work led to the Ethiopian government barring her from the country.
Anna has also reported from Ukraine, Afghanistan, China, Sudan, Nigeria, Mozambique, and several other African countries. Her most recent reporting, “Starving in Somalia,” explores the Horn of Africa drought and a new wave of climate migrants as thousands of people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are dying of starvation and illnesses.
The award-winning journalist has taken a fascinating career path, with several reporting posts – highlighting business, fashion and sports – as well as serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central and West Africa, a teacher in rural Pakistan, and a Bollywood stuntwoman.
Anna visited Elon as part of the university’s partnership in the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium network, an educational initiative that brings Pulitzer Center staff and journalists to campus twice a year. With Elon’s membership in the consortium, students have worked with the center on developing international reporting projects, which have been featured on the center’s website and disseminated through its media partners.
Accompanying Anna during her visit was Mikaela Schmitt, program coordinator for Outreach and Campus Consortium for the Pulitzer Center.