Ron Allen

Ron Allen is an NBC News correspondent based in New York.  Allen contributes regularly to NBC News and MSNBC.  He just returned to the United States after many years based in London, covering stories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.  During more than 20 years of journalism, including a decade abroad, Allen has been a correspondent for reporting teams that have won numerous awards, including six Overseas Press Club Awards, four Emmys, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, and a George Foster Peabody Award.

Most recently Allen’s assignments for “NBC Nightly News,” “Today” and MSNBC include:  Reporting from Baghdad on the crisis with Iraq, reporting from Pakistan and Afghanistan on the war on terror, reporting from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza on the Middle East peace process and the conflict in Kosovo, and reporting from Belgrade and inside Kosovo on NATO’s war to remove Slobodan Milosevic.  

Prior to joining NBC, Allen was based in London as a correspondent for ABC News from 1992 to 1996.  His key assignments included the U.S. military intervention in Somalia, the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda and the South African elections.  Allen contributed several reports to “Nightline” and he was also sent to Los Angeles to cover the O.J. Simpson trial on a special assignment for “Good Morning America.”

From 1988 to1992, Allen was a CBS News correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. for one year and Los Angeles for the following three years.  In Washington, D.C., Allen was a general assignment correspondent focusing on the White House and the Pentagon.  In Los Angeles, Allen covered the Rodney King trial, the L.A. riots and the Los Angeles police force.  He had several overseas assignments, reporting from Japan, the Philippines, El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua. 

From 1984 to 1988, Allen was a general assignment reporter for WCVB-TV, the ABC-affiliated station in Boston, Mass.  He hosted a weekly urban affairs program, and occasionally anchored the morning and noon newscasts.  From 1983 to 1984, he was the bureau chief at WFSB-TV, the CBS-owned station in Hartford, Conn.  Prior to that, Allen served as a general assignment reporter for WBTV, the CBS-owned station in Charlotte, N.C.  Allen began his career in 1980 at CBS News in New York where he was a desk assistant for the network radio news staff.

The recipient of numerous awards, Allen was part of the NBC news team that won two Emmys for their coverage of the devastating floods in Mozambique in 2000. Their work also won the Overseas Press Club Award for spot news reporting from abroad.  In 1989, Allen was part of the“48 Hours” team for CBS News that won an Emmy for their coverage of Hurricane Hugo.  Allen also received both an Emmy and a Robert F. Kennedy award for his coverage at ABC News of the Sudan Famine in 1994.  He went on to receive the Overseas Press Club, National Headliner, U.S. International Film and Video Festival and National Association of Black Journalists awards for his 1995 coverage of genocide in Rwanda.  He won the Overseas Press Club Award for spot news reporting for a second time in 1996 for coverage of Rwanda’s continuing ethnic violence.  In 1997 he won a third Overseas Press Club Award for “Zaire Become Congo,” which covered the fall of the dictator Mobutu and the victory of Laurent Kabila’s rebel forces.

In 1999 Allen was voted journalist of the year by the National Association of Black Journalists.  He was also part of a team awarded the Overseas Press Club Award for spot news coverage of the conflict in Kosovo.  Also in 1999, Allen’s reports from Belgrade during the NATO bombing campaign to drive Slobodan Milosevic’s army out of Kosovo helped “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw” win the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Network Newscast.  Allen was one of only a few American journalists in Belgrade during NATO’s attacks.

His other awards and honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, second Robert F. Kennedy and National Headliner awards and the UPI award, all for investigative reporting and individual reporting achievement in a series of reports called “Inside Bridgewater,” an investigation of conditions inside a Massachusetts mental health facility in 1987.  He is also a 1983 and 1984 recipient of Associated Press Awards for team coverage of breaking news events. In 1984, he was named one of the Outstanding Young Men of America.

Allen is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he received both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in political science.  He was then awarded several Ph.D. fellowships to continue studying American politics.  He is also the recipient of the University of Pennsylvania Trustees Award for scholarly research.  Allen was president of the Onyx Senior Honor Society.

Allen lives in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area.

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