By Lauren Ingeno
Their careers have put them at the forefront of international relations, journalism and politics.
As the School of Media and Public Affairs Distinguished Fellows for the 2013-14 academic year, Tara D. Sonenshine and Major Garrett will provide insight on the intersection of these three topics to faculty and students.
Mr. Garrett, chief White House correspondent with CBS News, is “one of the most accomplished journalists in the field today,” said Frank Sesno, SMPA director. He has reported on fiscal cliff negotiations, covered President Barack Obama’s second inauguration and traveled to the Middle East during the president’s first foreign trip of his second term in office.
Ms. Sonenshine, former under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, has spent time, as she says, on “both sides of the podium.” From reporting and producing at ABC News for more than a decade, to taking on multiple roles at the White House, Ms. Sonenshine’s career path has been anything but commonplace.
The purpose of the fellows, Mr. Sesno said, is to bring in some of the “most distinguished professionals” in political communications and journalism to “genuinely engage” them with students and faculty. The fellowship allows them to have an active role in the GW community without having to surrender their professional responsibilities outside of the university.
Fellows in recent years have included Former U.S. Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah), former White House videographer Arun Chaudhary and NPR’s national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
Though they will not be teaching specific courses, Mr. Garrett and Ms. Sonenshine will visit classes, hold brown bag lunches, attend events and build relationships at GW.
“This is a way for us to involve some of the most fascinating and accomplished people in this town, who are in the line of work that students are pursuing, and to engage them in a way that otherwise would not be possible,” Mr. Sesno said.
When Ms. Sonenshine was an undergraduate at Tufts University, she was torn between pursuing a career in journalism or a career in international relations.
When she was offered a reporting position at ABC News, she jumped on it — and stayed for a decade. In 1994, she was reporting on a story in Moscow when a former journalist who was working for President Bill Clinton talked her into serving in a communications role at the White House.
From there, Ms. Sonenshine took on various White House roles during the Clinton administration, while also working as a contributing editor at Newsweek in between those years. From 2009 to 2012, Ms. Sonenshine served as the executive vice president of the United States Institute of Peace. In 2012, President Obama nominated her as under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.
“My career has always been at the intersection of media and international affairs, which makes this fellowship at GW perfect,” Ms. Sonenshine said.
And she doesn’t see these two interests as mutually exclusive.
“I think we’re better journalists when we really understand how policy is made, and I think we are better policymakers if we really understand how news is made,” she said.
Mr. Garrett has had a lengthy career as a broadcast news reporter, but his roots are in print journalism. He began as a reporter for the Houston Post, Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Amarillo Globe-News, and then became a senior editor and congressional correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, where he reported on Congress and the impeachment of President Clinton.
He then joined CNN and later Fox News as the chief White House correspondent. He returned to writing when he took on his role as a congressional correspondent for National Journal. Mr. Garrett was named CBS News' chief White House correspondent in November 2012.
Mr. Garrett said he is honored to serve as a fellow, and he is impressed with the fellowship program.
“Frank Sesno has built an innovative program that analyzes, explains and evaluates the media environment,” Mr. Garrett said. “To call it an ever-changing landscape is a cliché. Frank has never trafficked in those, and his program doesn't either.”
He said he is eager to help SMPA and those it serves to “understand more about the media and its future."
The fellows will only be at GW for a year, but their relationships with the university will likely last much longer. Past fellows have returned after their tenure to teach master classes, take part in projects and plan activities, Mr. Sesno said.
“It’s about building relationships. Normally people of this stature, you’d invite them in for a guest lecture and that would be that,” Mr. Sesno said. “But these fellows really get to know our students and our faculty.”
The SMPA Distinguished Fellows program is made possible by a donation from Bruce and Cindy Terker, parents of 2013 SMPA graduate Jennifer Terker.