Sheryl WuDunn facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sheryl WuDunn
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WuDunn in October 2012
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| Born | November 16, 1959 New York City, U.S.
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| Education | Cornell University (BA) Harvard University (MBA) Princeton University (MPA) |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist, lecturer, business executive |
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| Traditional Chinese | 伍潔芳 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 伍洁芳 | ||||||||||||
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Sheryl WuDunn (born November 16, 1959) is an American writer, journalist, and business leader. She is famous for winning a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting. She has also written several best-selling books.
Sheryl WuDunn has worked as a senior banker. She focused on companies that were growing fast in technology and new media. She also helped businesses that aimed to do good for society and make money. Before this, she was a journalist and business executive for The New York Times.
She worked as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. She reported from their offices in Beijing, China, and Tokyo, Japan.
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Sheryl WuDunn's Early Life and Education
Sheryl WuDunn is a third-generation Chinese American. This means her grandparents or great-grandparents came from China. She grew up in New York City on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
She went to Cornell University and earned a bachelor's degree in European History in 1981. After college, she worked for Bankers Trust Company. She was an international loan officer for three years.
Later, she continued her education. She earned a master's degree in business from Harvard Business School. She also got a master's degree in public administration from Princeton University.
A Career in Journalism and Awards
In 1988, Sheryl WuDunn married reporter Nicholas Kristof. She joined The New York Times in 1989. She worked as a correspondent in their Beijing office.
WuDunn and her husband, Nicholas Kristof, won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1990. They won for their news coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China. They were the first married couple to ever win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Sheryl WuDunn was also the first female Asian-American reporter to win this award.
She also received other important awards for her reporting in China. These include a George Polk Award and an Overseas Press Club award.
In 2009, WuDunn and Kristof received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, Newsweek magazine listed her as one of the 150 Women who Shake the World.
In 2012, Fast Company magazine named her one of 60 notable members of the League of Extraordinary Women. She was also featured in a 2013 PBS documentary called "The Makers." This film highlighted leading "women who make America."
Award-Winning Author
Sheryl WuDunn has written five best-selling books with her husband, Nicholas Kristof.
- China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia are non-fiction books. They explore the culture, society, and politics of East Asia. They do this through interviews and personal stories.
- Her third best-selling book is Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. This book talks about how to help women around the world. A PBS documentary was made based on this book. Half the Sky also became a game on Facebook.
- Her fourth best-seller, A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity, was published in 2014. It explores how helping others can change lives. This book was also turned into a PBS documentary.
- Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, published in 2020, also became a New York Times best-seller.
Making a Difference
Sheryl WuDunn has served on many important boards. For over ten years, she was on the Cornell University board of trustees. This board helps guide the university. She was also on the advisory council for the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In 2013, she was elected to the Princeton University board of trustees.
She also advises several new companies. These companies work in areas like healthcare and mobile security.
In 2015, she signed an open letter from the ONE Campaign. This letter asked leaders like Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to focus on women's issues. It urged them to make women a priority in global development funding.
