Atia Abawi

Now more than ever, young students are struggling with understanding the modern American news and media landscape. As an author and journalist who has covered wars and conflicts around the world, Atia helps young students understand how to navigate misinformation.

As a former CNN and NBC correspondent, Atia shares her extensive knowledge and insight from the fragile democracies and divisive conflicts that she has covered first hand during her career. Atia will also layer in her own personal story as an Afghan refugee whose parent fled a stable and budding country after a communist takeover. Atia will invite student into empathetic listening in order to interrupt the dangerous narratives that cause divides which ultimately perpetuate oppression and destabilize democracies.

Atia Abawi bring an objective journalistic perspective that is based on her own knowledge of living in Jerusalem for six years and covering the region for more than a decade. Working through a lens of empathy and equity, Atia invites her audience into the stories of those she has met through her extensive journalism career covering the conflicts and wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East for CNN and NBC News. Through her journeys as well as her own experiences as a refugee and Muslim immigrant to the U.S., Atia invites participants into empathetic listening in order to interrupt dangerous narratives that cause divides between disadvantaged groups which ultimately perpetuate oppression.