Bob Schieffer

Shorenstein Center Announces Fall 2015 Fellows

CAMBRIDGE, MA — The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School is pleased to announce the appointment of their Fall 2015 Fellows.

“This fall’s fellows are exceptional for their experience and knowledge. Bob Schieffer is one of America’s most honored and respected journalists, while David Ensor, Marie Sanz, and Paul Wood are each deeply informed about international issues of keen interest to Kennedy School students and faculty. We’re excited to have the four of them with us in the months ahead,” said Professor Thomas E. Patterson, the Center’s acting director.

Shorenstein Center Fellows spend the academic semester researching, writing, participating in events and interacting with students, faculty and the Harvard community. Since 1986, the fellowship program has welcomed more than 250 accomplished journalists, scholars, and politicians from around the globe.

The Fall 2015 Fellows are distinguished leaders in political and international reporting.

Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow

Bob Schieffer has been a reporter for more than half a century and was a part of CBS News for 46 years. He is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: the Pentagon, the White House, Congress and the State Department. Schieffer anchored the Saturday edition of the “CBS Evening News” for 23 years, became the network’s chief Washington correspondent in 1982 and was named the anchor and moderator of “Face the Nation” in 1991. Within these roles he has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon and moderated three presidential debates. Throughout his career Schieffer has written four books, won numerous awards and covered every presidential race and nominating convention since 1972. He will be in residence at the Shorenstein Center on a visiting basis for three semesters, throughout the 2016 election season. During his time on campus Schieffer will meet with students and faculty, speak at various events for the Harvard community and participate in Shorenstein Center activities.

Joan Shorenstein Fellows

David Ensor is the former director of Voice of America, the official external broadcast institution of the U.S. Government which provides multimedia programming to international audiences. He stepped down from his role in early 2015 after four years. Previously, Ensor served as director of communications at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan and spent thirty years as an award-winning television and radio correspondent, reporting on foreign policy and national security issues for NPR, ABC News and CNN. While at the Shorenstein Center, Ensor will write about international state media, and how the West should respond to media challengers.

Marie Sanz is currently the bureau chief of Agence France Presse (AFP) in Lima, Peru, covering also Chile and Bolivia. Over her 25-year career as a foreign correspondent for AFP, she has reported at length from Latin America, Africa, the United States and Europe. Her assignments have included political and economic stories, conflicts and international negotiations. Sanz has reported extensively on Cuba and its international relations, including Fidel Castro’s final years in power and his last visit to the United Nations in New York, the first papal visit to Cuba by Pope John Paul II, the Elian Gonzalez crisis and the “black spring” arrests and trials of dissidents and journalists in Havana. While at the Shorenstein Center, Sanz will write about the changing relations between Cuba and the U.S. through the lens of the media.

Paul Wood is a BBC foreign correspondent, most recently based in Beirut. For the past four years he has covered the Syrian uprising, making a number of trips across the border from Lebanon and Turkey, often covert. He has reported first-hand on the growth of the insurgency, the siege in Homs, and the emergence of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Syria. Over the course of his career he has received numerous awards and was named Journalist of the Year by the UK Foreign Press Association. While at the Shorenstein Center, he will explore the moral dilemmas facing journalists and policymakers in Syria, especially in relation to the Islamic State.

About the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

The Shorenstein Center is a research center based at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, with a mission to study and analyze the power of media and technology and its impact on governance, public policy, and politics. Research, courses, fellowships, public events, and engagement with students, scholars, and journalists form the core of the Center.

Press Contact:
Katie Miles:
katie_miles@hks.harvard.edu or 617-496-8636