Journalist Betty Nguyen to Speak at UNA Fall Commencement

Nov. 2, 2012



FLORENCE, Ala. – Betty Nguyen, former anchor for CBS Morning News, will speak to the University of North Alabama’s fall 2012 graduating class Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. in Flowers Hall.
Betty Nguyen
Prior to anchoring CBS Morning News and reporting regularly for CBS This Morning, Nguyen had served as anchor of the weekend morning edition of CNN Newsroom since 2004. During that time, she anchored the network’s coverage of major news events, including the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the United States in 2008, the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005 and the London bombing attacks in July 2005. She also anchored portions of CNN’s coverage of the tsunami disaster in South Asia, the Iraqi elections in January 2005 and the June 2004 handover of sovereignty to Iraq.

Nguyen traveled to Constitucion, Mexico, in 2009 to cover the damage caused by Hurricane Jimena. In 2008, she reported from Houston and Galveston, Texas, during Hurricane Ike. Also that year, she went undercover in Myanmar for a series of exclusive reports that exposed a lack of aid two months after Cyclone Nargis killed more than 140,000 people. Nguyen traveled to Africa in 2007 to cover the presidential elections in Sierra Leone, the political and economic crises in Zimbabwe and apartheid-era prosecutions in South Africa.

In September 2005, Nguyen reported and anchored from the Houston Astrodome, where thousands sought shelter after Hurricane Katrina. Later that month, she went on assignment in her birth country of Vietnam to cover the deadly flooding caused by annual monsoons.

Before joining CNN, Nguyen was an anchor at KTVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Dallas, where she covered numerous breaking news events, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Nguyen began her career as a morning anchor and reporter at KWTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Waco, Texas.

In 2007, the Smithsonian Institute recognized her as the first Vietnamese-American to anchor a national television news broadcast in the United States. In 2003, she won a regional Emmy Award for Outstanding Noon Newscast. In 1998, she received an Associated Press Award for breaking news coverage.

Nguyen is the co-founder of Help the Hungry, a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian aid to poverty-stricken families.

Nguyen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. In 2008, she earned the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award.

PHOTO AVAILABLE: A photo of Nguyen is available to the news media at the UNA Photo Archive.