Nicholas Kristof

Nicholas Kristof
Kristof at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 30, 2010
Born	Nicholas Donabet Kristof (1959-04-27) April 27, 1959 (age 57) Chicago, Illinois
Alma mater	Harvard University Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupation	Journalist, author, columnist
Spouse(s)	Sheryl WuDunn (m. 1988)
Website	NYTimes:Kristof

Nicholas Donabet Kristof (born April 27, 1959) is an American journalist, author, liberal / progressive op-ed columnist, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. He is a regular CNN contributor, and has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since November 2001, and The Washington Post says that he "rewrote opinion journalism" with his emphasis on human rights abuses and social injustices, such as human trafficking and the Darfur conflict. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has described Kristof as an "honorary African" for shining a spotlight on neglected conflicts.

Kristof was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up on a sheep and cherry farm in Yamhill, Oregon. He is the son of Jane Kristof (née McWilliams) and Ladis "Kris" Kristof (born Władysław Krzysztofowicz), both long-time professors at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. His father was born of Polish and Armenian parents in the former Austria-Hungary, and immigrated to the United States after World War II. Nicholas Kristof graduated from Yamhill Carlton High School, where he was student body president and school newspaper editor, and later became a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College. At Harvard, he studied government and worked on The Harvard Crimson newspaper; "Alums recall Kristof as one of the brightest undergraduates on campus," according to a profile in the Crimson. After Harvard, he studied law at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his law degree with first-class honors and won an academic prize. Afterward, he studied Arabic in Egypt for the 1983–84 academic year. He has a number of honorary degrees.