NPR News has tapped CNN Vice President and Bureau Chief Edith Chapin to lead its international coverage.
Chapin will step into her new role as senior foreign editor on May 14. In her new position, she will oversee NPR's foreign desk, 17 international bureaus and its network of foreign correspondents.
“We’re thrilled to have Edith on board,” Margaret Low Smith, senior vice president for NPR News, said in a statement. “She brings a critical constellation of skills to this job: leadership, editorial heft and a deep understanding of the world.”
Chapin has spent over two decades at CNN, where she mostly recently served as vice president and deputy bureau chief in Washington, D.C.
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She has had extensive experience covering many global hot spots, including the first Gulf War and the U.S. invasion of Panama.
She has also covered international incidents in countries as Bosnia, Rwanda, Zaire and Ireland. For seven years she directed all editorial coverage from CNN’s New York bureau, including the network’s reporting on 9/11 and its aftermath.
Chapin grew up in Brazil, Ethiopia and Guatemala as the daughter of a Foreign Service officer, and speaks fluent Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Joining her in leadership of NPR's foreign desk is Didi Schanche, who is being promoted to deputy senior foreign editor. Schanche has been an editor at NPR since 2001, helping to coordinate coverage of national security, Africa and Latin America.