Journalist Maureen Orth has joined the board of Internews Network, the media development organization whose work supporting and empowering independent media has taken it to more than 70 countries around the world. Journalist Maureen Orth served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia in the 1960's.
Vanity Fair Writer Maureen Orth Joins Internews Board
Vanity Fair Writer Maureen Orth Joins Internews Board
Maureen Orth(July 30, 2009) Washington, D.C.-Journalist Maureen Orth has joined the board of Internews Network, the media development organization whose work supporting and empowering independent media has taken it to more than 70 countries around the world.
An experienced reporter, and the third woman writer at Newsweek, she has been a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair since 1993. She started writing for the magazine in 1988. Among the heads of state she has interviewed are Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Argentine President Carlos Menem, and Irish President Mary Robinson.
Orth served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Medellin, Colombia in the sixties, where she first helped build a school named after her, Escuela Marina Orth. The school is the first public bilingual school in Colombia and the first One Laptop Per Child School there.
"Internews' programs in the field continue the kind of work the Peace Corps pioneered, teaching professionalism at the grassroots level and helping local communities better themselves," said Orth. "Internews understands that accurate news, delivered by credible sources, strengthens, empowers and emboldens."
Orth, whose late husband was Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press," has written numerous investigative pieces for Vanity Fair on topics ranging from the intersection of the opium trade and terrorism to profiles of controversial celebrities. She authored the best-selling book, Vulgar Favors, about the man who killed fashion designer Versace, and The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the scenes of the celebrity industrial complex.
"Maureen brings a deep background in professional journalism to the table, along with an amazing network and genuine commitment to advancing international development," said David Hoffman, President of Internews Network. "We are delighted that she has chosen to help Internews to strengthen and support local, independent media around the world."
Orth has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and the UCLA School of Journalism.
Other Internews board members include Manana Aslamazyan, Executive Director of Internews Europe; Chris Boskin, Chair of the Board for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; Kathy Bushkin Calvin, Executive Vice President and COO of the United Nations Foundation; Greg Carr, Director of the Carr Foundation; Simone Otus Coxe, Member of the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council; Lorne Craner, President of the International Republican Institute; Wade Greene of Rockefeller Family and Associates; David Hoffman, President of Internews Network; David Michaelis, Senior Editor for Current Affairs at Link TV; Carlos Pascual, Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at Brookings Institution; James H. Rosenfield, Sr., President of JHR & Associates; Sanford Socolow, Executive Producer of Cronkite Productions, Inc.; and Tara Sonenshine, Executive Vice President for the US Institute of Peace.
