Reena Ninan (born April 18, 1979) is an Indian American television journalist who has been an award-winning news anchor for the national mainstream media, including ABC News and CBS News. She is also the founder of the news media company Good Trouble Productions.Darien Resident’s “Ask Lisa” Podcast Makes an Impact Near and Far
Moffly Media, Deepinder K Kanwal

Education

Ninan was valedictorian at C. Leon King High School in Tampa, Florida in 1997 in her class of 576 graduates. She earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in political communication with a minor in women's studies from The George Washington University, School of Media and Public Affairs in 2001. She delivered a message to George Washington University graduates in 2020 via Facebook.

Career

News presenter (1999–present)

From 1999 to 2005, Ninan was a producer at the '' Washington Post'', a freelance journalist for ABC News, and a freelance journalist at BET. From 2005 to 2012, she was the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

correspondent at Fox News, covering many countries and events, including the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq from 2007 to 2011. From 2012 to 2015, Ninan worked at ABC News. She began working there in the Washington bureau, where she covered the White House and the State Department. She later moved to New York, reporting for '' Good Morning America'' and continuing to travel abroad as a foreign correspondent. In April 2015, Ninan was named co-anchor of ABC's early morning shows '' World News Now'' and '' America This Morning'', alongside T. J. Holmes. From 2016 to 2020, Ninan worked at CBS News. She was the solo anchor of CBSN and the Saturday night anchor of the '' CBS Weekend News''. She also reported for '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS This Morning'', and other CBS broadcasts. Since 2021, Ninan has been a foreign affairs and political contributor at CNN.

Good Trouble Productions (2020–present)

Ninan is the founder and owner of her own news media company, Good Trouble Productions. She has managed, taught, and mentored digital media content creation groups with 30-70 people to create a collaborative environment. Ninan has hosted the ''Ask Lisa Podcast'' along with psychologist Dr. Lisa Damour to help with parenting tips since the summer of 2020. 800 people came to Darien High School Auditorium to see Ninan and Damour speak in May of 2023. AdLarge signed an advertisement partnership deal with the podcast. Cathy Csukas, co-CEO and co-founder of AdLarge said, "Their professional and direct advice has drawn an extremely engaged and responsive audience that we're excited to share with our advertisers." Since December 2020, Darien TV79 has been the first station to air episodes of Ninan's show ''The Rebound'', stories of how people made it out of their darkest moments to find the light. Since 2021, Ninan has hosted a podcast called ''HERO: The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women''. It is partially funded by

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

and the Gates Foundation. On August 26, 2024, Ninan and Dr. Lisa Damour spoke for Aura's Digital Parenting Summit on parenting advice in front of a live audience at the Times Center in New York City. The forum was streamed live online.

Public speaking (2020–present)

Ninan has been an active volunteer and moderator for Children's Hope India. The organization currently has 20 projects helping 300,000+ children across India and the United States with schooling and health. Ninan has appeared in two C-SPAN Video Library videos to host topics of discussion including foreign policy with Rep. Bill Keating. Ninan is a former member of the Atlantic Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She currently works as a presider of their public forums. In October of 2023, Ninan hosted a conversation at Mather Homestead in Darien, Connecticut with Mattie Kahn about her book of the contribution teenage girls have made to society. Ninan hosted the 2024 Sheroes in Media Awards by the Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association (MMCA) on March 27, 2024. In May of 2024, Ninan was the moderator of Toigo Foundation's Industry Insights forum. The nonprofit organization selects 50 minority group master of business administration students to benefit from their program.

Awards

Ninan has been nominated for three

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

. In 2013, she was nominated as a reporter at the 35th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast on ''Good Morning America'', ''World News with Diane Sawyer'', and ''Nightline'', for "Direct Hit: Oklahoma Tornadoes". In 2014 and 2015, Ninan was nominated twice in a row as a correspondent at the 42nd and 43rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Morning Program on ABC's ''Good Morning America''.

Personal life

Reena Ninan was born and raised in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

to Indian Malayali Christian parents Miriamma and Mathew. She has one brother, named Tony. She is fluent in English,

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. Ninan is married to author and former ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' reporter Kevin Peraino. They have two children, Kate and Jackson.Ninan & Peraino Welcome Baby Boy!
Fish Bowl DC, January 5th 2011, By Matt Dornic

External links

Reena Ninan on ABC News official website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ninan, Reena 1979 births American writers of Indian descent American television reporters and correspondents George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs alumni Living people People from Tampa, Florida American women television journalists CBS News people ABC News people American people of Malayali descent