NICHOLAS Kristof
Columnist, The New York Times
Degrees: A.B. Harvard ’81; B.A., J.D., Oxford’83.
Harvard–related activities: activities: Interviewer, particularly of foreign students applying from China; regular visitor to give lectures or lead seminars at Harvard, or to consult with faculty on international or media issues. Also on the board of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars and interviewer on Rhodes Scholarship selection committees.
Achievements and Honors: Two Pulitzer Prizes, in 1990 and 2006. Other prizes including the George Polk Award, Michael Kelly Award, American Society of Newspaper Editors Award, Overseas Press Club Award, Online News Association Award, Emmy nomination. Honored by the International Rescue Committee, International Women’s Health Coalition, U.N., and other organizations.
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Campaigning since 2004 against the genocide in Darfur and visited the Darfur area eight times. Cited by the former head of the International Rescue Committee for reporting that saved “several hundred thousand people” in Darfur. Also extensive reporting on sex trafficking in India and Cambodia, and on AIDS and malaria in Africa.
Greatest Personal Rewards and/or Reflections on Harvard: Hmmm. Since I probably set a record in the Class of ’82 for number of countries in which I’ve been arrested, I’m flattered even to be considered for this (O.K., my crimes typically don’t involve committing bank robberies but journalism, and the places where I get detained or banned are usually unpleasant ones like Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan and Chad). Since Harvard, I’ve spent much of my time abroad, some of it glorious and involving nice scenery and clean sheets. Then there were the encounters with wars, mobs, malaria and an African airplane crash. But the traumas have made me value some things all the more. One is old friendships, from Harvard and elsewhere. Another is an appreciation of nuance, which is the essence of an education – but which has been AWOL in our foreign policy lately. A third is the conjunction of tremendous need abroad, above all in Africa and the poor parts of Asia, and tremendous resources in this country. I’ll never forget a woman in Cambodia who had already lost one child to malaria, and now she has to choose every night which of her children to put under her mosquito net and which to leave out and expose to malaria -- because she couldn’t afford $5 for another net. It is incredibly frustrating to cover these stories (especially the slaughter in Darfur, a slow-motion but relentless genocide), but with my pen I do what I can to confront the Kalashnikovs. It’s eerie to go from interviewing weeping mothers who describe seeing their children thrown on bonfires back to American suburbia and my own wonderful family: Sheryl WuDunn (HBS ’86) and our three kids, ages 9 to 14. I confess that I always feel torn between my commitments in the developing world and those at home. When I do try to coax the kids on trips, it’s usually to places with awful plumbing (“Come on, you’ll love Zambia!” Or “North Korea is magical this time of year!”). So I’m looking forward to bringing them to Cambridge for the reunion, liberating them to cause mischief with all of your kids, and catching up with classmates again. Until then, take care!