Andrea Koppel is a congressional correspondent for CNN. Named to this position in March 2006, Koppel is based in the network's Washington, D.C., bureau.
Koppel joined CNN in 1993 and, in 1998, became the network's State Department correspondent, a position she filled until moving to Capitol Hill to cover the U.S. House and Senate. As the State Department correspondent, Koppel has reported on news events around the world and has followed three U.S. secretaries of state including the first woman to hold the position, Madeline Albright; the first African American, Colin Powell; and the first African-American woman, Condoleezza Rice, in their international travels. Among some of the highlights of Koppel's coverage include Rice's historic meetings in Senegal and the Sudan in July 2005 shortly after Africa's longest civil war ended; Powell's diplomatic mission to Afghanistan and Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; and Albright's historic trip to North Korea in October 2000.
Koppel also reported on the 1998 Wye River Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the 1999 Shepherdstown Israeli-Syrian peace talks, the 2000 Camp David II Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. In December 2003, Koppel traveled to Tripoli and secured the first interview with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi after he agreed to give up his weapons of mass destruction program. Recently, Koppel accompanied Undersecretary of State for Diplomacy Karen Hughes as she made her "listening tour" of the Middle East.
Previously, Koppel served as the network's Beijing bureau chief and correspondent where she traveled to more than half of China's 30-plus provinces and autonomous regions, including the Xinjiang region in China's far Northwest, Tibet and the Heilongjiang province that borders Siberia. She reported on numerous events, including the death of China's leader Deng Xiaoping, the 1996 standoff between the United States and China in the Taiwan Strait, the 1994 nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, the first democratic presidential election in Taiwan in 1996 as well as the 1995 U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing. She traveled to and reported extensively on Taiwan's transition to a democracy and also reported regularly from Hong Kong on preparations being made for the 1997 handover of British Hong Kong to China. During the handover ceremonies, she reported live from Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Before moving to Beijing, Koppel served from 1993-1995 as a Tokyo-based CNN correspondent where she reported on the burst of Japan's economic bubble, Japanese politics and culture as well as breaking news events, including the devastating 1995 earthquake in Kobe and the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by the Om Shinrikyo cult.
During her tenure at CNN, Koppel has secured numerous exclusive interviews with world leaders, such as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in December 2003, China's President Jiang Zemin before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and President Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan’s first democratically elected president. In addition, Koppel has interviewed numerous newsmakers. In March 2006, Koppel broke the news that Dubai Ports World would not move forward with its plan to take control over six U.S. ports.
Before joining CNN, Koppel worked at WPLG-TV in Miami where she reported on news stories that included 1992's Hurricane Andrew. She also reported on assignment from Haiti on the fallout after the overthrow of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, including the exodus of thousands of Haitians to South Florida. Earlier, Koppel worked at WJZ-TV as a reporter in Baltimore.
Koppel has earned numerous awards for her work, including a 1991 local Emmy Award for her news series "Haiti: After the Coup," a first place Women in Radio and Television Award for the 1996 "Daughters of the Revolution," a documentary about women in China, and an Associated Press Radio Award for a documentary on the South Carolina Department of Youth Services.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Koppel earned a bachelor's degree in political science with a concentration in Chinese language and Asian studies from Middlebury College.
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