Jackie Northam

Journalist Jackie Northam is NPR's national security correspondent, covering foreign affairs, defense and intelligence policies, terrorism, and other national security issues. Northam has worked for NPR since 2000, and her reports can be heard on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Northam is based in Washington, D.C., and travels often overseas to cover unfolding news events. She covered the Afghan 2009 presidential elections from Kabul and around the country. From Pakistan, she reported on the state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf, the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal regions along the Afghanistan border, and the Parliamentary elections held after the death of Benazir Bhutto. In the summer of 2006, Northam reported from Beirut during the war between Hezbollah and Israel. She covered events in Iraq shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Northam also covered the first Gulf War, spending seven months in Dhahran and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Northam is the lead reporter for NPR's coverage of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She travels regularly to the remote military base, most recently to cover the trial of 9/11 mastermind, Khaled Sheik Mohammed.

Over the years, Northam has received several awards for her reporting, including three regional Edward R. Murrow awards, a Unity award, a Gabriel award, and several Associated Press awards. She was part of a team that won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award.

Northam was a foreign correspondent for more than a decade, freelancing for CBC Canada, Monitor Radio, the BBC and other radio networks. While based in Nairobi, Kenya, she covered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, heading into the country just four days after the massacres began. Over the months, she reported on the efforts to help refugees, the rebel take over, and the violent spillover into Burundi, and the then Zaire.

In 1993, Northam was based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, reporting on efforts by the United Nations to bring democracy to the country, and to disarm the Khmer Rouge. Prior to that, Northam was stationed in Bangkok, Thailand, and traveled extensively throughout southeast Asia and Indochina.

A native of Canada, Northam began her life abroad in London, England, from where she spent seven years traveling through Europe, covering stories about Margaret Thatcher's Britain, and the efforts to create the European Union.