Kati Marton

Born in Hungary, Kati Marton has combined a career as a reporter and writer with human rights advocacy.  From 2003 to 2008 Marton chaired the International Women’s Health Coalition, a global leader in promoting and protecting the health and human rights of women and girls.  From 2001 to July 2002 Kati Marton was Chief Advocate for the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict at the United Nations. Marton is currently a director and formerly chair of the Committee to Protect Journalists.  She served on the Human Rights Watch Board for ten years.  She also serves on the board of directors of the International Rescue Committee, New America, and Central European University.  She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, P.E.N. International and the Author’s Guild.

Since 1980, Marton has published eight books and contributed as a reporter to ABC News, Public Broadcasting Services, National Public Radio, The New YorkerAtlantic MonthlyThe Times of LondonThe Washington PostThe Wall Street JournalNewsweekVanity Fair, and The New Republic. Marton’s 2009 book, a Cold War memoir entitled Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America, published by Simon & Schuster, was  a National Book Critics Circle finalist, and is soon to be the subject of a major motion picture.  Her latest book,  Paris: A Love Story,published in August 2012 by Simon & Schuster, is a memoir with Paris at its heart and like all stories of Paris, love as its theme. Her books have been translated into five languages.

Marton attended Wells College in Aurora, New York, the Sorbonne, and the Institute des Etudes de Science Politiques in Paris. She earned a B.A. in Romance Languages and a M.A. in International Relations from the George Washington University.  She was the winner of a George Foster Peabody award for a documentary on China. She has also received two honorary doctorates: one from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island in 2000 and another from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York in 2009. In 2011 she was awarded the Leo Nevas Human Rights Award from the United Nations Association.