ANDERSON COOPER

Coming Full Circle: A 360° Look at World Events

April 17 at 7:30pm · Mountainlair Ballroom

Anderson Cooper anchors Anderson Cooper 360°, an unconventional, wide-ranging news program airing on CNN/US weekdays. Cooper, who joined CNN in December 2001, served as CNN's weekend anchor before moving to the 7:00 p.m. hour in March 2003, following the war in Iraq.

Presenting the world news from a perspective of both a seasoned journalist and a humanist, Cooper delivers events happening daily around the world with urgency, assigning equal significance to the revolutionary and the personal. He provides in-depth coverage of justice, politics, health, and pop culture, and does not shy away from challenging issues and hard-hitting stories.

Before joining CNN, Cooper was an ABC News correspondent and host of the network's reality program, The Mole. Cooper anchored ABC's live, interactive, overnight news and interview program, World News Now as well as provided reports for World News Tonight, 20/20, and 20/20 Downtown. Previously he was a New York-based correspondent for ABC News, reporting primarily for World News Saturday/Sunday.

Cooper joined ABC from Channel One News, were he served as a reporter and producer. During that time, he was a chief international correspondent, reporting and producing stories from Bosnia, Iran, Israel, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, and Vietnam. He also reported national stories that were broadcast over the Channel One News school television network and seen in more that 12,000 classrooms nationwide.

Because of his background as a war correspondent for Channel One News, Cooper was sent to Afghanistan after the 9-11 terrorist attacks to report on the U.S. military conflict and to Qatar where he reported on the testing of United States Central Command's new mobile headquarters. More recently, he interviewed Haiti president Jean-Bertrand Aristide shortly before a 2004 revolt.

Since joining CNN, Cooper has anchored major breaking news stories, including the network's overnight coverage of the war in Iraq, as news of the military conflict was unfolding live during the day in Baghdad. He also anchored much of CNN's live coverage of the DC-area sniper story and the coverage of the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion. For "America Votes 2004," he moderated a democratic presidential candidate forum that the network jointly sponsored with "Rock the Vote." Closer to home, Cooper covered the Sago Mine tragedy in Upshur County, West Virginia.

He has won several awards for his work, including an Emmy Award for his contribution to ABC's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral, a Silver Plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival for his report from Sarajevo on the Bosnian civil war, a Bronze Telly for his coverage of famine in Somalia, a Bronze Award from the National Educational Film and Video Festival for a report on political Islam, and a Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Award for Outstanding TV Journalism for his 20/20 Dowtown report on gay high school athlete Corey Johnson.

Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He also studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi.