Author: Allison Dodson

Hoda Kotb is the co-host of the fourth hour of NBC’s TODAY alongside Kathie Lee Gifford. Since the duo teamed up in 2008, the Gifford-Kotb hour has been hailed as “appointment television” by Entertainment Weekly, “uproarious and irresistible” by People, and “TODAY’s happy hour” by USA Today.

Since joining NBC in 1998, Kotb has served as a correspondent for “Dateline NBC.” She has covered a variety of domestic and international news stories, as well as human-interest stories and features across all NBC News platforms.

A New York Times bestselling author, Kotb has penned three books: Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer and Kathie Lee; Ten Years Later: Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives; and Where They Belong.

Kotb is a three-time Emmy winner, and she has also received three Gracie Awards, a Peabody Award, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. As an 8-year breast cancer survivor, Kotb is involved in several initiatives to raise awareness about the disease. Kotb graduated from Virginia Tech University with a Bachelor of Arts in broadcast journalism. She resides in New York City.

A native of Atlanta, Ga., Sonya Ross attended Georgia State University and joined The Associated Press in 1987 as a general assignment reporter in its Atlanta bureau. She went on to cover the Georgia legislature, and was promoted to The AP’s national staff in Washington in 1992 to cover civil rights, race and urban affairs. She joined the White House press corps in 1995 as the first African-American woman assigned to The AP’s presidential reporting team. Sonya became World Services editor in 2002, and helped direct The AP’s coverage of the global anti-terrorism campaign and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004, Sonya was on the team of editors directing coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and became news editor for The AP’s Washington-based regional reporters in December 2004. In 2010, Sonya was named The AP’s first-ever race and ethnicity editor, responsible for coverage that captures the changing facets of race relations in the United States, and its effects on the experiences of the American people. The pursuit of news has taken Sonya to 48 countries and an untold number of American cities while on assignment covering Presidents William J. Clinton and George W. Bush, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell. During the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Sonya was the print pool journalist with President Bush on Air Force One as he was evacuated to safety according to procedures established by the U.S. government during the Cold War. Sonya served on the board of the White House Correspondents Association from 1999-2003, and currently serves on the board of the Washington Press Club Foundation. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Terry Anderson, 68, is a retired journalist – a former foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He served as Chief Middle East Correspondent for the Associated Press, as well as working as a newspaper editor, tv & radio reporter and documentary producer. He is a former Marine and Vietnam veteran.

Anderson has spent more than ten years as a journalism professor at University of Florida, Syracuse University, Ohio University and the Columbia School of Journalism, among others. He is author of the best¬selling book “Den of Lions,” recounting the seven years he was held hostage in Lebanon, and has been a frequent speaker on journalism, the Middle East and public affairs. He holds numerous awards in journalism, as well as for volunteer and charitable work. He is honorary chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which monitors attacks on the press and works to defend journalists around the world. He is also co-chair and founder of the Vietnam Children’s Fund, which has built 50 schools in Vietnam over the past 20 years.

Anderson is an enthusiastic diver (cave¬dive certified and experienced), and a horse lover who has raised and trained young and troubled horses. He currently lives in Orange, Virginia.

Anderson holds a double B.A. in journalism and political science from Iowa State University.