 Elizabeth Vargas: Co-anchor of ABC News' 20/20.
As an award-winning anchor and correspondent, Vargas has traveled the world
covering breaking news stories, reporting in-depth investigations and conducting
newsmaker interviews. During the historic Iraqi elections in December 2005, she
anchored World News Tonight from Baghdad. She anchored for both World News
Tonight and 20/20 from the U.S. Gulf Coast, covering Hurricane Katrina's
devastation.
Her international coverage has also sent her to Beslan, Russia, where she found
stories of hope after rebels attacked a school and killed more than 300 people,
over half of them children. She also reported from the Middle East for a special
on the resurrection of Jesus; and reported from Cambodia on the plight of
orphans and questionable international adoption practices there.
Vargas has also anchored ABC News coverage of live, breaking news stories
including the deaths of President Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy, Jr. She won
an Emmy in 2000 for Outstanding Instant Coverage of a News Story for anchoring
live coverage of the Elian Gonzalez case.
Vargas was credited by the New York Times in November 2004 as reinvigorating the
newsmagazine format with her "intellectually brave" reporting of an examination
of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young man whose murder gained national
attention as an anti-gay crime. In July 2003, she hosted “In the Shadow of Laci
Peterson”, an ABC News special that examined the disappearances of several young
women in northern California and why their stories failed to attract significant
media attention. In November 2003, she anchored “Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci”, an
hour investigating many theories raised in the best-selling novel The Da Vinci
Code. Her February 2001 exclusive interview with the owners of two dogs that
killed a San Francisco woman was so revealing, prosecutors in the case say it
was critical to winning convictions against the couple.
In 2002, Vargas was the narrator of the four-part, award-winning ABC News
documentary series “ICU”, which provided a unique look at life inside one of the
nation's elite pediatric cardiology intensive care units. Vargas has anchored
and reported several one-hour ABC News "Vanished" specials. Other hour-long
specials include "Same-Sex Marriages," "Surrogacy" and "It Takes a Miracle." She
has also been involved in ABC's Children First Program, participating in a
Children First Safety Special and in ABC's March Against Drugs.
Vargas was previously the anchor of World News Tonight Sunday and was also a
frequent substitute anchor on Good Morning America. Previously a correspondent
for 20/20 and Primetime Thursday and a co-anchor of Primetime Monday, Vargas
joined ABC News from NBC News, where she was a correspondent and anchor,
primarily for Dateline NBC and the Today show.
During her tenure at NBC, Vargas served as substitute co-anchor and news anchor
for NBC News' Today show and as a substitute anchor for the weekend editions of
NBC Nightly News. Vargas joined NBC News in 1993 as a correspondent for the NBC
newsmagazine Now With Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric.
Prior to joining NBC News, Vargas spent four years as a reporter and anchor for
WBBM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Chicago. From 1986 to 1989, she was the lead
reporter for KTVK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix. Earlier, she worked as a
reporter/anchor for KTVN-TV, the CBS affiliate in Reno, Nev.
Vargas graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of
Missouri in Columbia, Mo., where she began her broadcasting career as a
reporter/anchor for KOMU-TV.
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