"I am a professional observer. I am given the gift of being on the edge of historic events."

Named as NBC News White House correspondent in 2005, Kelly O’Donnell regularly travels with the President domestically and internationally, conducting interviews and breaking live reports. Prior to this, she was an NBC News correspondent based in New York, covering stories for NBC Nightly News, Today, and Dateline NBC. As an NBC News Correspondent previously based in New York and Los Angeles, she covered stories of national interest. She has also served as news anchor for the weekend edition of Today and as a substitute anchor for other NBC News broadcasts. Represented exclusively by Leading Authorities, she speaks with insight and ease about life spent in the trenches, in the courtroom, and in the political “war room.” Not only is she in the public eye, she is the public’s eye.

O’Donnell’s political reporting background began in 1996 on the Dole campaign. In Iowa, she reported on the field of Democratic challengers, then on the campaign trail during Senator John Kerry’s bid for the White House, through election day. In 2004 she also reported from the Democratic Convention in Boston, the Presidential Debates, during NBC News’ Decision 2004 election night coverage, and President Bush’s second inauguration. On other political fronts, she was on hand for the 2003 gubernatorial recall in California and the 2000 Florida recount.

Meeting the Press. From the Rose Garden to Baghdad, the Olympic Games to the campaign trail, Kelly O’Donnell is always on the scene. Her reports have taken her to all 50 states and 47 countries.

An award-winning reporter, O’Donnell was inducted into the Ohio Radio/Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame in September 2004. She has earned one Emmy and several nominations. O’Donnell also received two first place awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for her feature reporting, and was part of the Nightly News team honored with multiple Edward R. Murrow Awards.

O’Donnell has reported on the Oklahoma City bombing, through the federal trials and Tim McVeigh’s execution; the Columbia shuttle disaster; the war from inside Iraq; the Columbine high school shooting; John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane crash; and the death of Pope John Paul II, from his native Poland. O’Donnell was inducted into the Ohio Radio/Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame in September 2004. She has earned one Emmy and several nominations, received two first place awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for her feature reporting, and was part of the Nightly News team honored with multiple Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Beyond borders. In addition to giving accounts on the war in Iraq from both Baghdad and U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar, she was embedded with the Third Infantry Division during operations in Fallujah and reported exclusively from the skies above Iraq on a classified combat mission during the air assault on Baghdad. O’Donnell also recounted the first meeting to form a new Iraqi government from the ancient city of Ur. She has reported on U.S. troops serving in the Middle East from aboard three aircraft carriers.