Speaker Travels

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Biography

Since joining CNN, Cooper has anchored major breaking news stories, most recently the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast. He traveled to Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami and was in Baghdad for the Iraqi elections. Cooper also anchored much of CNN's live coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City as well as the Terri Schiavo story in Florida. For “America Votes 2004,” he moderated a Democratic presidential candidates’ forum the network sponsored with Rock the Vote.
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 news and interview program, World News Now, as well as providing 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, where he served as chief international correspondent. During that time, he reported and produced 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 than 12,000 classrooms nationwide.
In June 2006, Cooper will publish Dispatches from the Edge of the World. His book provides a rare up-close glimpse of what happens when the normal order of things is suddenly turned upside down, whether it’s a natural disaster, a civil war, or a heated political battle. From New Orleans to Baghdad, Cooper gives a deeply personal look into the crises he has witnessed firsthand and the surprising impact they have had on his life.
Cooper has won several awards for his work, including a National Headliners Award for his tsunami coverage, 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 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Journalism for his 20/20 Downtown report on 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. Cooper is based in New York City.


Titles

Anderson Cooper's Keynote
Anderson Cooper gives an impressionistic look back at his life in journalism so far, and he tells it with the same candor and feeling that resonates so powerfully with audiences, critics and subjects. He shares amazing stories of the people he met, the things he saw and the lessons he relearned in the midst of devastation. His television viewers will recognize in his talk the same distinctive intellect, empathy, curiosity, eloquence and accountability he brings to his broadcasts.
Cooper crisscrosses through time as these haunting experiences dislodge old memories he has long tried to contain. Reporting from Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami surrounded by sadness and despair, he tells of survivors looking for missing loved ones and whole villages decimated to covering the devastation – still being felt – of Hurricane Katrina. Cooper is reminded of his own earlier losses and the formative impact they have had on him: the death of his father, writer Wyatt Cooper, when he was only ten and the suicide of his brother, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, in front of their mother while he was in college. Throughout his talk, he reflects on the family history he has kept at a distance for years, gradually remembering and reconfiguring pieces of his past into something recognizable.
Anderson gives the audience a sense of what it means to be a journalist -- the fear, the adrenaline, the camaraderie, the pragmatism, the desensitization, the self-preservation -- and how challenging it is to do that job without losing essential parts of oneself. He also shares telling insights into the anatomy of a news story, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what makes it to air and what doesn’t. Cooper demonstrates why he has become one of the most relevant and incisive voices in the news business.

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