Sean Callebs has been a network reporter in four different decades. He comes to CGTN with more than 20 years experience at CNN, where he covered a wide array of stories. Sean was CNN’s point person based in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Sean also put a face on the problem of poverty in the United States when he lived on food stamps for a month, and was nationally recognized for his work as the number of people dependent of food stamps surged from about 26 million to more than 32 million in the United States.

Sean has worked in a number of countries including China, Cuba, Guatemala, Afghanistan, Jordan, and Kuwait. He reported from Ground Zero in New York for weeks in the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11.

Sean anchored news programs on CNN and CNN Headline News, and was in the anchor chair the morning Saddam Hussein was captured in Iraq. He also got the only interview with Timothy McVeigh’s co-conspirator in the aftermath of the horrific attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Sean has been widely recognized for his work. Among his awards is a National Emmy for his coverage in the aftermath of the Mississippi River flood in 1993. He received a Gold Medal at the New York Film Festival that same year for a documentary on Alaska three years after the Exxon Valdez Spill. He has won numerous awards for spot news reporting, including Hurricane Katrina and the Oklahoma City Bombing.

In 2011, Sean served as a diplomat in Afghanistan for the US State Department, where he helped rebuild the country’s TV, radio, and film industries.

He is a distinguished alum from Marshall University, and delivered the commencement address at the University in 2010.