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BIOS AND HEADSHOTS
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Kimberly Arp Babbit
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Bud Bultman
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Jen Christensen |
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Jon Klein President, CNN/U.S. |
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Mark Nelson Vice president and senior executive producer for CNN Productions |
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Soledad O’Brien CNN anchor and special correspondent |
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James Polk Senior Producer, Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination |
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Jeffery Reid |
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Elise Zeiger Senior Producer, The Black Man |
Kimberly Arp Babbit, an Emmy-winning journalist, is a producer for CNN Productions, where she writes and produces documentaries for such long-form programs as CNN Presents and CNN: Special Investigations Unit. Babbit is based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta.
During her 15-year career with CNN, Babbit has been involved in much of the network’s most distinguished work including coverage of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq. She began her career at The New York Times.
Among her awards are two Emmys, one in 1996 for coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing and another in 2003 for the CNN Presents documentary, The Enemy Within. In 2007, Georgia Trend magazine named her as one of its “Top 40 Under 40.”
Babbit graduated from Oglethorpe University.
Bud Bultman is managing editor for CNN Productions, responsible for all aspects of CNN Worldwide’s award-winning documentary series from development to production to final cut. He is based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta.
As managing editor, Bultman oversaw production of such CNN: Special Investigations Unit documentaries as Chasing Angelina and Grady’s Anatomy. Most recently, he served as managing editor for CNN’s upcoming documentary series, CNN Presents: Black in America.
Before becoming managing editor of CNN Productions in 2005, Bultman served as the managing editor of People in the News, a weekly hour-long biography program produced in conjunction with PEOPLE magazine. During his tenure, People in the News rose to become the network’s second highest-rated program in the key 25-54 demographic.
Joining CNN in 1986, Bultman has served in a variety of writing and production capacities for CNN’s general news coverage, the CNN Special Reports unit and newsmagazine programs. He served as a line producer during CNN’s acclaimed coverage of the first Persian Gulf War. As senior producer of the high-tech program, CNNdotCom, Bultman wrote and produced long-form stories and short features.
He is the author of the book Revolution by Candlelight about the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe.
Bultman’s work has earned an Edward R. Murrow award, two National Headliner and two Emmy awards, one in 2006 for Charity Hospital, a gripping look at efforts within the New Orleans’ hospital to evacuate after Hurricane Katrina, and another in 2002 for Struggle for Islam, a documentary exploring the roots of Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was also part of the CNN team that won a George F. Peabody award for the network’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, CNN Presents was awarded best documentary series by the International Documentary Association.
Bultman graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and earned his master’s degree from the Columbia School of International Affairs. He also studied at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
Jen Christensen
Biography
Jen Christensen, an Emmy-nominated field producer for CNN Productions. In that role, Christensen has helped produce a variety of compelling long-form documentaries for CNN: Special Investigations Unit and for CNN Presents, the most honored documentary series in cable news. She is based at CNN’s Atlanta headquarters.
Christensen served as a producer for the award-winning CNN Presents: God’s Jewish Warriors;a previous documentary about Martin Luther King Jr., Words that Changed a Nation; and for the upcoming CNN Presents: Black in America series.
Previously, Christensen ran the investigative unit for WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C., and started the investigative unit at WTVQ in Lexington, Ky. where she also worked as a line producer. While still in college, she started her career at WXIN in Indianapolis running the assignment desk, a line-producer and field producer.
Prior to her broadcast journalism career, Christensen worked in London on nuclear non-proliferation issues for NATO’s Atlantic Council and worked re-drawing voter redistricting maps at the Chicago Board of Elections. She is listed as a co-author
for two books: Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1925-1993: a Bio-Critical Sourcebook (Greenwood Press, 1993) and Women Confronting Retirement –
A Nontraditional Guide (Rutgers Press, 2003).
Christensen holds a bachelor’s degree from Butler University in TV/radio and political science and also attended the London School of Economics where she studied foreign policy and economics.
Jon Klein is president of CNN/U.S., responsible for management oversight of all programming, editorial tone and strategic direction of the network. He reports to Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide.
Named to this position in November 2004, Klein previously served as president and chief executive officer of The FeedRoom, a broadband video company he founded in 1999. Under his direction, The FeedRoom became one of the leading online broadcasters in the world, delivering more than 1 million video clips each day to customers including CBS, NBC, ESPN, Reuters, Tribune television stations and newspapers, USA Today, Business Week, General Motors, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, General Mills and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Before founding The FeedRoom, Klein was an executive vice president at CBS News, where he oversaw prime-time programming including 60 Minutes, 48 Hours and Public Eye With Bryant Gumbel. Klein also oversaw off-network production, guest booking, investigative reporting and strategic planning.
Klein began his television career in 1980 as a news producer at WLNE in Providence, R.I., and the following year moved to a similar position at WPIX-TV/Independent Network News in New York. In 1982, he joined CBS News as a writer and news
editor on the overnight broadcast Nightwatch. He subsequently served as broadcast producer on CBS Morning News and then CBS Evening News Weekend Edition, where he won an Emmy Award for live coverage of the 1986 Reagan/Gorbachev summit in Reykjavik, Iceland.
In 1988, Klein joined the fledgling prime-time magazine series 48 Hours as a field producer, eventually winning an Emmy Award for coverage of Hurricane Hugo and a Peabody Award for an hour he produced on the anti-abortion movement. Klein served as senior producer for CBS’s 1990 late-night series America Tonight with Charles Kuralt and Lesley Stahl, as senior producer for the network’s coverage of the 1991 Gulf
War and later for the documentary Back to Baghdad, in which foreign correspondent Bob Simon returned to the Middle East following his imprisonment by the Iraqis
during the war.
In 1993, Klein launched a unique prime-time documentary series, Before Your Eyes, two-hour movies-of-the-week that explored social issues such as child abuse, AIDS and juvenile delinquency through the eyes of real people living through dramatic moments in their lives with the cameras rolling. The series, for which Klein served as executive producer and director, was acclaimed for pioneering new forms of storytelling and received numerous national awards.
In 1997, Klein conceived and executive produced the CBS documentary Inside the Jury Room, in which network television cameras were permitted for the first time to observe deliberations in a criminal trial. The documentary won a Columbia-DuPont Silver Baton.
Klein also wrote the story for the TNT Original film Buffalo Soldiers, a 1997 historical drama starring Danny Glover.
Klein graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1980 with a degree
in history.
Mark Nelson
Biography
Mark Nelson is vice president and senior executive producer for CNN Productions.
A veteran broadcast producer with nearly 30 years experience, Nelson is responsible for the network’s two documentary series – the award-winning CNN Presents and
CNN: Special Investigations Unit – as well as other long-form programming and special event programs.
Nelson joined CNN in 2004 as the senior executive producer of Paula Zahn Now, a nightly news and information program with interviews, current events news reports from CNN correspondents based around the globe, and analysis from experts in
their field.
Nelson came to CNN from the National Geographic Channel, where as vice president and executive producer he built a staff of more than 40 producers, correspondents, writers, editors, and directors to launch and produce National Geographic Today, the network’s hour-long, signature documentary program. His unit also produced specials and other documentaries for the channel.
Before joining the National Geographic Channel in 2000, Nelson spent 11 years as the senior broadcast producer for ABC’s Nightline, a position where he produced numerous Emmy-winning broadcasts. At the same time, Nelson served as a senior producer
for special events programming including broadcasts of political conventions in 1996 and 2000.
Nelson joined ABC News in 1982 as a producer and has served as chief of the network’s bureaus in Tel Aviv, Rome and the western United States. Nelson started
his career in 1976 in Des Moines, Iowa, as senior producer and director of Iowa
Public Television.
Nelson attended Drake University and studied political science.
Soledad O’Brien
Biography
Soledad O'Brien is an anchor and special correspondent for CNN: Special Investigations Unit, reporting hour-long documentaries throughout the year and filing in-depth series on the most important ongoing and breaking news stories for all major CNN programs.
O’Brien joined CNN in July 2003 as the co-anchor of the network’s flagship morning program, American Morning, and distinguished herself by reporting from the scene on the transformational stories that broke on her watch. Her efforts following Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Phuket, Thailand, have earned her numerous awards and critical acclaim.
As a member of the “Best Political Team on Television,” O’Brien has been covering the presidential election reporting live during CNN’s expansive coverage of the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
In recent months, O’Brien served as CNN’s point person for President George W. Bush’s visit to Mexico, delivering a series of eye-opening reports on conditions south of the border that fuel illegal immigration to the United States. She also anchored and reported a highly acclaimed CNN: Special Investigations Unit documentary featuring a never-before-seen look at Martin Luther King Jr.’s private writings, notes and teachings, which represent the foundation of King’s life’s work as a preacher and human rights activist; and her ongoing initiative titled “Children of the Storm,” which provides video cameras to young Hurricane Katrina survivors so that they can tell their stories of trial and triumph in their own words and images.
For CNN’s Hurricane Katrina coverage, O’Brien’s daily reports about the impact of Hurricane Katrina included an in-depth interview with former FEMA chief Michael Brown. She also covered the London terrorism attacks in July 2005, and in December 2004, she was among a handful of CNN anchors sent to Puhket, Thailand, to cover the disaster and aftermath of the tsunami that took more than 155,000 lives. She reported from Columbus, Ohio, on the late count of Ohio’s contested electoral votes in November 2004. Earlier that fall, she anchored the live coverage of the burial of Yasser Arafat. In the fall of 2003, O’Brien was the only broadcast journalist permitted to travel with first lady Laura Bush on her trip to Moscow.
O'Brien came to CNN from NBC News where she had anchored the network’s Weekend Today since July 1999. During that time, she contributed reports for the weekday
Today Show and weekend editions of NBC Nightly News and covered such notable stories as John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane crash and the school shootings in Colorado and Oregon. In 2003, she covered the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and later anchored NBC's weekend coverage of the war in Iraq. Additionally, in 1998, she traveled to Cuba to cover Pope John Paul II’s historic visit.
Before Weekend Today, O'Brien anchored MSNBC’s award-winning technology program The Site and the cable network’s weekend morning show. O’Brien joined NBC News in 1991 and was based in New York as a field producer for Nightly News and Today.
Before her time at NBC, she served three years as a local reporter and bureau chief
for the NBC affiliate KRON in San Francisco. She began her career as an associate producer and news writer at the then-NBC affiliate, WBZ-TV in Boston.
In 2007, O'Brien garnered a Gracie Allen Award for her reporting from Cyprus on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict as well as her reports from the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Also this year, the NAACP honored her with its President's Award in
recognition of her humanitarian efforts and journalistic excellence, and she was also the recipient of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay's 2007 Clara Barton Humanitarian Award. In April 2008, she will receive the first annual “Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award” created in her honor by Community Voices at the Morehouse School of Medicine. The award, honoring mid-career professionals who serve as catalysts for social change within their fields, will be bestowed upon her for her accomplishments in her field together with her commitment to cover stories that others fail to pursue, and her willingness to be a voice for those in society who are unable to speak for themselves.
O'Brien was part of the coverage teams that earned CNN a George Foster Peabody award for its Katrina coverage and an Alfred I. duPont Award for its coverage of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. In 2006, the National Urban League awarded her its Women of Power award. She also won a local Emmy for her work as a co-host on Discovery Channel's The Know Zone. She has been named to PEOPLE magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful” in 2001 and PEOPLE en Espanol’s 50 most beautiful in 2004. O’Brien was also included in Crain’s Business Reports’ “40 under 40”, Essence magazine’s “40 under 40” and Black Enterprise “40 Under 40.” O'Brien has been named several times to Irish American Magazine's “Top 100 Irish Americans.” O’Brien earned the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association of Minorities in Cable in 2006 and has received honorary degrees from Siena College and Mercy College.
She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
O’Brien is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in English and
American literature.
James Polk
Biography
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, James Polk is a senior producer with CNN’s investigations and documentary unit, CNN Productions. Most recently, he served
as a senior producer for the upcoming CNN Presents: Black in America series.
Polk’s contributions to CNN’s award-winning coverage include reports about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center as well as the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. He helped manage CNN’s extended coverage of the investigation into the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which earned CNN an Emmy award in 1996. His subsequent documentary, Road to Oklahoma, earned a National Headliner award.
He has uncovered exclusive stories for CNN on insider theft in the U.S. Postal Service, bribery in the federal disaster clean-up program and a billion-dollar bank fraud
reaching from a Mafia front in New Jersey to secret accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The latter was recognized for investigative reporting by the National Headliner Club. His 2002 documentary, In the Line of Fire, about deaths in police-car fires also earned a National Headliner award.
Polk joined CNN in 1992 after 17 years reporting on the air as a national correspondent for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C. At NBC, he was the first to report on the probe that brought down the Mafia’s top godfathers and on baseball’s cocaine scandal. He covered the investigations and court cases of Imelda Marcos,
Pete Rose and assorted U.S. cabinet members and congressmen.
In 1974, Polk received the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for his Watergate coverage at the Washington Star. He has received the Raymond Clapper award
twice as best reporter in Washington and has won the Sigma Delta Chi national reporting award.
Polk is former national president of Investigative Reporters & Editors and ran its conferences for college journalism students for a decade.
Jeffery Reid, a veteran broadcast journalist with more than 27 years of experience, is an executive producer for CNN Productions. In that role, Reid oversees the editorial content for the network’s long-form programming that appears in programs including CNN Presents and CNN: Special Investigations Unit. He is based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta.
Reid’s last project, Martin Luther King: Words that Changed a Nation, gave viewers a rare look inside the U.S. civil rights movement and used King’s own writings to explore his philosophy and theology. Reid’s other documentary work for CNN includes programs about the Virginia Tech massacre, the Iraq war, the Oklahoma City bombing, among other topics. Presently, he is working on CNN’s ongoing Black in America initiative.
Since joining CNN in 1996, Reid has served in a variety of production roles, including executive producer for Lou Dobbs’ Moneyline and Inside Politics. He’s also worked on breaking news, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the war in Iraq. Before joining CNN in 1996, Reid served for three years as executive producer at WXIA-TV in Atlanta, where he won five Emmy awards. He began his career at WTVC-TV in Chattanooga, Tenn., and worked for nine years at WISH-TV in Indianapolis.
Reid earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Middle Tennessee State University.
Elise Zeiger, an Emmy-winning journalist, is a senior producer for CNN Productions. In that role, Zeiger writes and produces documentaries for CNN’s award-winning documentary programs, CNN Presents and CNN: Special Investigations Unit. She is based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta.
Her work for CNN includes documentaries on the Sago Mine disaster; the Virginia Tech massacre; Chasing Angelina, which examined paparazzi and celebrity obsession; and Grady’s Anatomy, which profiled four real life residents at a Level One trauma center in Atlanta.
Before becoming a senior producer for CNN Productions in 2005, Zeiger served in a similar capacity for People in the News, a weekly hour-long biography program produced in conjunction with PEOPLE magazine. She wrote and produced shows featuring newsmakers and entertainers from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Martha Stewart.
She joined CNN in 1989 as a video journalist, and in 1991, became a package producer for the half-hour weekly news program Big Story.
Among her awards are two Emmys, one in 1997 as a producer for an Olympic Park bombing special, the other in 1996, for coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing aftermath.
Zeiger graduated with honors from the University of Florida with a major in broadcasting and a minor in political science.
