awards & selected accomplishments | Certificates of Appreciation, National Institutes of Health. 2017-18 | Certificates of Appreciation, Voice of America. 2014-15 | Regional Emmy, outstanding newscast. 2013 | Awarded Poland travel fellowship for articles about Poles who sheltered Jews in WWII. 2011 | UN Foundation fellow, nominated by the Gates Foundation. 2011 |

professional achievements & experience

Freelance multimedia journalist, communications and marketing professional | 1/1993 - present

Clients have included BBC World Service, United Nations agencies and national committees, Wine Searcher, The Independent (UK), London Evening Standard, The National (Abu Dhabi), Washington Diplomat, New Humanitarian, Colorado Times Recorder, VeloNews, Runner’s World, Rock & Ice, Radio Tamazuj (East Africa). Stories have been cited in research journals and government reports.

Editing, writing: Health, science, politics, diplomacy, business, travel editor, reporter for print and online publications.| Author, book on triathlon. | Edited, translated research papers, including a French study on nicotine treatment for nonsmokers with COVID. | Edited theses for students at U.S. service academies, top universities. | Shot, edited photos, videos for numerous clients.
Communications, marketing, copy writing: Wrote business statement of purpose/employee and collaborators’ handbook in English for German cookware manufacturer. This position was combined with childcare, English and French language lessons for 2 elementary school age girls. | Wrote news releases for Turner 4D in Washington, D.C. | Wrote, placed articles, did live promotions, including on BBC radio, for UNICEF’s Olympic Aid, which raised $15 million for vaccination campaigns for children in countries at war. | Used targeted social media campaigns and posts to promote reporters’ and organizations’ work. | Managed project for Runner’s World promotional event at London Marathon expo. Booked guests, including numerous well-known athletes, sourced and edited videos and sound for promotional video; hosted several of the events. Thousands attended the workshops and seminars, which achieved their goal of promoting Runner’s World magazine in the UK.
Broadcast: Fixed for, appeared in BBC Travel Show on Chamonix, France. | Did live, taped sports commentaries for Eurosport and Channel 4 TV (UK) | Voice-overs for promotions, news shows. | Wrote, tracked script for a long-form video on manual lymphatic drainage. | Scripted, voiced reports about a race in Madagascar for BBC World Service radio.
Photo, video: Led a team who shot, edited around 400 photos, video and audio at one-week U.N. Office for South-South Cooperation conference. Did rapid edits of work produced and posted online. | Shot, edited videos before, during U.S. conference of the U.N. refugee agency. | Shot, edited photos for two-day seminar run by University of Maryland business school. | Shot breaking news photos for KRDO News Channel 13, Pueblo, CO. | Shot photos at paraclimbing 2023 world championships.
Other: Taught multimedia journalism, with modules in photography, videography, audio, graphics, writing at University of Maryland, College Park. Students completed a video, web page with photo and text or audio report for their final project. | Started as a theater production company assistant before getting a job as a news typist and production assistant at BBC World Service Radio. | Left to take a magazine editor and staff writer position at Triathlete, U.K. | Headhunted to work as staff writer at Running Magazine, where I launched and edited a triathlon supplement and a cycling title, managed production budgets and a dozen freelance reporters and photographers. The cycling magazine’s subscriber base tripled in the 18 months I was editor.

Editor, Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo, CO | 1/2022 – 7/2022

More than doubled page views on a single day within two weeks of starting by increasing local coverage, working with staff to improve their reporting and writing; editing and rewriting stories, consulting with readers on what they wanted covered. Subscriptions rose 20% in 3 months; web views went up from fewer than 500,000 to over 600,000 in two months.
Selected, commissioned, evaluated pitches from reporters, sourced and edited news, features and op-eds. Wrote breaking news, enterprise stories as needed. Fact-checked, edited stories for content, grammar, style. Wrote SEO headlines and leads. Promoted stories on social media. Shot, assigned, edited photos using Photoshop, Lightroom. Wrote AP-style captions. Created photo galleries. Devised writing test for new staff members, and hired two reporters.

Editor, reporter, photographer, Stars and Stripes, Kaiserslautern, Germany | 6/2019 – 11/2021

Edited, wrote breaking news, features about the U.S. military. Assigned, fact-checked stories. Wrote SEO headlines.
Produced, edited audio slideshows, graphics, photos, videos, using Nikon cameras, PhotoMechanic, Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Premiere Pro and Audition. Translated German news releases into English for use in stories. Coached reporters.
Covered events including 75th anniversary of the start of WWII’s Battle of the Bulge, a ceremony to remember WWII river crossing featured in “A Bridge Too Far,” Afghanistan evacuations. Wrote or edited several most-read stories of 2020, ’21.

Writer, editor, photographer, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD | 2/2016 – 5/2019

Wrote features, news about global health, interviewed scientists and researchers at a time when the Fogarty International Center was threatened with defunding and closure. Edited colleagues’ work. Stories I wrote were referenced in medical journals, including The Lancet, and university publications.
Lead photographer for web and print. Sourced art, secured photo permissions from providers including WHO, the CDC.

Web, script editor, reporter (contractor), Voice of America, Washington, DC | 01/2013 – 11/2015

Edited radio scripts on tight deadline for a show about South Sudan, most written by non-native English speakers. After the show had aired, I selected stories to recast for online publication, and promoted them on social media.
Set up the show’s Facebook, YouTube pages. Nearly quadrupled Twitter followers to more than 10,000 in under two years by live tweeting at events and posting scheduled Tweets. Conducted and edited interviews for radio and web.
Reported and wrote stories relevant to South Sudan. Tracked and used data to inform reporting, web story selection.
Tracked scripts, did voiceovers and PSAs in English and French for South Sudan in Focus and other services and programs.

• Deputized for managing editor. Compiled the rundown, assigned stories, edited scripts, tracked reports, voiceovers. Produced the show as needed. Coached, mentored reporters. Once had to recast the entire show as major breaking news came in, and was praised by colleagues for staying cool as we put together an excellent, informative show on deadline.

Correspondent, editor, RIA Global, Washington, DC | 4/2013 – 11/2013

• Wrote, researched, edited news and features for the U.S. branch of Russia’s RIA Novosti, which was not state-run at the time. Produced photo galleries, videos. Promoted stories on social media. The Kremlin shut us down.

Correspondent, editor, Agence France-Presse, Washington, DC | 8/2007 – 8/2013

Covered global and domestic news ranging from lifestyle to science, climate, global health, diplomacy, politics, international development, business and more. Attended and reported on major science, health conferences as English health and science writer. Shot and edited videos and photos to go with stories.
Interviewed personalities from entertainment, global health, finance, politics, and other fields. Covered presidential inaugurations, elections, protests, shootings, Capitol Hill hearings, natural disasters, high-level visits to the U.S., news conferences. Stood in for colleagues at the White House, State Department and Congress.
Translated stories from French, German, Spanish to English.

Baltic States editor, correspondent, Agence France-Presse, Warsaw, Poland | 1/2005 – 7/2007

Edited high volume of submissions from reporters in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, working with them and a team of photographers to boost output and quality of reporting from the Baltic States.
Commissioned exclusive reports, including one about a survivor of deportations from Latvia to the USSR. Interviewed world leaders including former Polish president Lech Walesa, Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga. Did live two-ways on breaking news out of Poland or the Baltics for France 24 television.
As chief English correspondent in Poland, covered events including the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Solidarity trade union, Pope John Paul II’s death, Chechen refugee influx to Poland, 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the Baltic states, covered the annual meeting of NATO leaders in Latvia, elections, violence in Estonia after removal of a WWII statue honoring Soviet troops, “Stalin World” in Lithuania.
Translated stories by reporters in Poland from French to English.

Africa desk editor, Agence France-Presse, Paris, France | 9/2001 – 12/2004

Edited news and features from bureaus across Africa on a busy desk. Covered breaking news, including the 2002 attempted coup in Ivory Coast, the death of Jonas Savimbi, the attack on a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, and more.
Translated stories from French into English. Worked on special assignment as news editor in Athens during 2004 Olympics, and in the Nicosia, Cyprus, bureau during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Broadcast journalist, Réseau France Outremer, Paris, France | 12/2000 – 5/2002

Wrote, tracked English scripts for international and African news programs. Edited videos used by all language services.

Editor, prezz sas, Paris, France | 7/2000 – 11/2000

• Planned, commissioned, edited content for news start-up. Managed stringers around Europe. Sourced, edited, uploaded art.

education | Master of Arts, Journalism, University of Maryland | Teacher of French as a Foreign Language, University of Grenoble, France | Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Arts, Sarah Lawrence College | Web Design certificate, Northeastern University

Karin Zeitvogel

Editor | Storyteller | Photographer