Tom Gjelten

Correspondent
National Public Radio

Watch Gjelten's most recent appearances on Washington Week

Tom Gjelten reports on national security issues from Washington, DC for National Public Radio's award-winning newsmagazines, "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," and "Weekend Edition."

Gjelten returned to Washington in 1994 after eight years of overseas assignments. From September 1990 to December 1993, Gjelten was based in Berlin as NPR's correspondent for Eastern and Central Europe. He reported such major stories as the reunification of Germany and the transition from communism to democracy and market economics. With other NPR correspondents, Gjelten also covered the war in the Persian Gulf and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

From 1991 to 1994, Gjelten's major assignment was in the former Yugoslavia, where he covered the Serb-Croat conflict in Croatia and the war in Bosnia. His book Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege (Harper-Collins), is based on his reporting from Sarajevo.

From 1986 to 1989, Gjelten was NPR's Latin American correspondent, based in Mexico City. During that period he covered the Central American conflicts, the crisis in Panama, the drug wars in Columbia, and politics and social issues in Mexico, Argentina, and other Latin American countries.

Since joining NPR in 1983 as labor and education reporter, Gjelten has won numerous awards for his work. Most recently, his coverage of the Yugoslav conflict earned Gjelten a Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club, a George Polk Award for Radio Reporting and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.

Gjelten is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the Antioch Graduate School in Keene, New Hampshire. In 1989-90 he was a William Benton Fellow at the University of Chicago.

[ Around the Table ]