The Heartbeat of Iran: Real Voices of a Country and Its People - Tara Kangarlou

Kangarlou, Tara: - Tara Kangarlou is an award-winning American journalist and writer who has reported, written, and produced breaking news, investigative pieces, and broadcast stories for NBC-LA, CNN, and Al Jazeera America. Her writing and reporting has also appeared in news outlets such as TIME, Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, and Al Monitor. She previously served as a fellow at the East West Institute and is a frequent news contributor on various international news outlets covering the MENA region, foreign affairs, and humanitarian issues. Kangarlou's expertise ranges from covering global conflicts and the Middle East to international and cultural affairs. While at CNN, Kangarlou was involved in covering major domestic and international news stories such as President Obama's 2013 Inauguration, the Boston marathon bombings, and the 2014 Russia-Ukraine crisis. In 2015, she led Al Jazeera America's team from inside Iran during the historic nuclear negotiations. Kangarlou has also reported from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh--the world's largest refugee camp--covering the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from Myanmar. She has also interviewed many global leaders, heads of states, and senior government officials in the US and around the world. In recent years she has spent much time in the Syrian border regions of Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan reporting and covering issues that impact Syrian refugees, host countries, and the Middle East at large. In 2016, she founded Art Of Hope, the first American nonprofit strictly focused on supporting the mental health and psychosocial needs of war-torn refugees in Lebanon. In 2017, Kangarlou was a keynote speaker at the first International Summit For Syrian Education in Istanbul where she addressed global leaders on the harrowing challenges faced by Syrians and other refugee children worldwide. In 2018 she was the recipient of the Ted Sorensen Award from Network 20/20 for her impact journalism and humanitarian work. Kangarlou was born and raised in Tehran, Iran; and is fully bilingual in English and Farsi. She received her BA from UCLA in Literature and her MA in Journalism from USC.