Anne Thompson, NBC News’ chief environmental affairs correspondent, has been named the spring 2025 Zubrow Distinguished Visiting Journalist in the College of Arts and Sciences. Each semester, the program brings accomplished journalists to Cornell to meet with faculty, staff and students.
While on campus April 7-11, Thompson will meet with faculty from across the university working on climate change-related research, as well as faculty working in religious studies, another beat she covers for NBC News.
“Climate change is a massive challenge for humanity, and Anne Thompson is on the front lines reporting on the efforts to counter that threat. I’m looking forward to her perspective and sharing Cornell’s research with her,” said Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences. “The Distinguished Visiting Journalist program enables us to bring renowned journalists like Anne to campus, for which we are very grateful.”
Thompson will meet with students in a “Career Conversation: Inside Journalism” event. And on April 10, Thompson will moderate a panel hosted by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
“I look forward to engaging with some of the nation’s most interesting thinkers on this issue of climate change,” said Thompson. “To solve these problems that make headlines every day, we need to hear from all interested parties to create solutions, and Cornell is doing just that with its Atkinson Center for Sustainability.”
Thompson began her role as chief environmental correspondent in 2007, and her reports appear across all platforms of NBC News, including “NBC Nightly News,” “Today,” MSNBC and NBCNews.com.
She has reported on many environmental issues, including the now-defunct Pebble Mine proposed for Alaska and a now-postponed new chemical plant in Louisiana. She has covered the global climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Paris and Glasgow, and she spent five months living in Venice, Louisiana, to cover the Gulf oil spill.
And she has focused on proposed solutions to climate change, including machines that pull carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, mass timber, prairie strips and using technology to better identify sources of rare minerals needed to power the batteries of the present and future.
From 2005-07, Thompson served as chief financial correspondent for NBC News, reporting on financial and economic news, for which she was nominated for four business and financial news Emmy Awards. Her stories included the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath; the increased cost of health care and its impact on the economy; alternative fuel vehicles; identity theft; and the politics of the credit card industry. She also covered the trials of Martha Stewart, Bernie Ebbers and Tyco from a financial perspective.
Thompson has won five Emmys as a correspondent for NBC News; an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina; and two Gerald Loeb Awards for distinguished business and financial journalism.
Thompson joined NBC News in 1997 as a national correspondent, reporting on a variety of stories – including Daimler Benz’s takeover of Chrysler, the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and the execution of Timothy McVeigh – for “Nightly News,” “Today” and MSNBC.
In 2000, Thompson was NBC News’ lead correspondent covering the presidential campaigns of Democratic hopeful Sen. Bill Bradley and Republican hopeful Sen. John McCain.
Before joining NBC News, Thompson had been an award-winning general assignment reporter for WDIV-TV, the NBC affiliate in Detroit, since 1986. While at WDIV, Thompson was honored with seven Emmy Awards for a variety of stories, including her coverage of the Jessica DeBoer custody battle, a profile of Kirk Kerkorian and his attempted takeover of Chrysler, a series on two serial killers in the Detroit area, and a report on the near riots that broke out following the Detroit Pistons’ NBA championship in 1990.
Read the story in the Cornell Chronicle.
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