Lulu Garcia-Navarro


Lourdes "Lulu" Garcia-Navarro is an English-born American journalist and the current host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday. Previously, she was a foreign correspondent, serving as NPR's Jerusalem bureau chief from April 2009 to the end of 2012. Her coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and her vivid dispatches of the Arab Spring uprisings brought Garcia-Navarro wide acclaim and five awards in 2012, including the Edward R. Murrow and Peabody Awards for her coverage of the Libyan revolt. She then moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, covering South America. Her series on the Amazon rain forest was a Peabody finalist and won an Edward R. Murrow award for best news series.

Early life

Garcia-Navarro was born in London, England. She has stated that her parents "are Cuban and Panamanian," and that she grew up in Miami.

Career

Garcia-Navarro studied international relations at Georgetown University and later obtained a Master's degree in journalism at the City University London. She started her career working as a freelance journalist for the BBC World Service and Voice of America, traveling to Cuba, Syria, Panama and several European countries on assignment for the two organizations.
She was hired by Associated Press Television News as a producer in 1999 and later worked for the news agency's radio division. AP dispatched Garcia-Navarro to Kosovo in 1999; Colombia in 2000; Afghanistan in 2001; Israel in 2002; and Iraq from 2002 to 2004.
Garcia-Navarro traveled to Iraq on assignment before the 2003 war and was among the few journalists that covered the invasion as a unilateral reporter.
Garcia-Navarro joined National Public Radio in November 2004 as Mexico City bureau chief. She moved to Baghdad in January 2008, where she oversaw NPR's Iraq coverage for more than a year. She moved to Jerusalem in the spring of 2009. She opened NPR's Brazil bureau in April 2013.
Garcia-Navarro was awarded the 2006 Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for her work in Mexico. She belonged to teams that received the 2005 Peabody Award and the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award, which recognized NPR's Iraq coverage.
In February 2011, Garcia-Navarro was one of the first reporters to report from eastern Libya as the uprising was gaining strength. She reported for months from rebel-held Benghazi, Tripoli and the western mountains as rebel forces fought pitched battles against Col. Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Garcia-Navarro's front line reports made her among the most praised journalists covering the Arab Spring.
Besides the Murrow and Peabody awards, she received the 2012 City University in London XCity Award, the Outstanding Correspondent Gracie Award,> and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award.
From her base in Brazil, she covered political protests, the Zika Virus and the Olympics. She became the new regular host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday on 8 January 2017.

Personal life

Garcia-Navarro is married to Times of London journalist James Hider. They have a daughter. In 2017 Garcia-Navarro became a US citizen.

Awards