Alissa Johannsen Rubin is a

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 ...

–winning American journalist, and the

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Bureau chief for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. She has spent much of her career covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

Early life and education

Alissa Johannsen Rubin was born and raised in New York City. She attended

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in renaissance studies. She received a Mellon Fellowship to study at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where she received her M.A. in 1986.

Career

In 1997 Rubin joined the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. With the paper, she covered Iraq, Afghanistan and, France, and the Balkans. In August 2007, Rubin was named deputy bureau chief in the

bureau of ''The New York Times''. In 2009, Rubin became the chief of The Times's bureau in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, Afghanistan. Rubin was seriously injured in a helicopter crash covering the war in northern Iraq on August 16, 2014. She suffered multiple fractures but was able to dictate a report of the accident. The crash killed the helicopter's pilot and injured others, including Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi member of the

Council of Representatives of Iraq The Council of Representatives is the ''de facto'' unicameral legislature of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, it is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the country. As of 2020, it comprises 329 seats and meets in Baghdad ...

Awards

Rubin won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for "thoroughly reported and movingly written accounts giving voice to Afghan women who were forced to endure unspeakable cruelties." In 2015, she won the John Chancellor Award from the Columbia Journalism School for her career of 35 years reporting on Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. Rubin won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1992 writing about the reality versus politics of abortion in the 1990s.

References

External links

Rubin's posts from "At War: Notes from the Front Lines"
blog at ''The New York Times'' * Interview with Rubin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Alissa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American expatriates in France Jewish American journalists Jewish women writers American women war correspondents American war correspondents Los Angeles Times people The New York Times journalists Place of birth missing (living people) Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents Brown University alumni Columbia University alumni 21st-century American Jews