Amanda Ripley


Amanda Ripley is an American journalist and author.

Personal life

Ripley was born in Arizona and grew up in New Jersey. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University in 1996 with a B.A. in government. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband. Her brother is the screenwriter Ben Ripley.

Career

Amanda Ripley writes about human behavior and public policy for Time magazine and The Atlantic. She is currently an Emerson Fellow at the New America Foundation. Her 2008 book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why, explains how the brain works in disasters—and how we can do better. The Unthinkable was made into a PBS documentary called "Surviving Disaster".
Ripley has written feature stories about what makes a great teacher for The Atlantic and about education fever in Korea for TIME Magazine.
Before joining Time, Ripley covered the D.C. court system for Washington City Paper and reported on Capitol Hill for Congressional Quarterly. In 2003, Ripley served as a Paris correspondent for TIME Magazine. She has also contributed to the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Monthly, Time Out, and Slate.
In August 2013, she released a book about education systems around the world called , published by Simon & Schuster.
Her essay "Ban School Bake Sales" was featured as the essay prompt on the October 2016 SAT.

Works