Sylvia Poggioli
Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.
Since joining NPR's foreign desk in 1982, Poggioli has traveled extensively for reporting assignments. These include going to Norway to cover the aftermath of the brutal attacks by a right-wing extremist; to Greece, Spain, and Portugal reporting on the eurozone crisis; and the Balkans where the last wanted war criminals have been arrested.
In addition, Poggioli has traveled to France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark to produce in-depth reports on immigration, racism, Islam, and the rise of the right in Europe.
She has also travelled with Pope Francis on several of his foreign trips, including visits to Cuba, the United States, Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
Throughout her career Poggioli has been recognized for her work with distinctions including the WBUR Foreign Correspondent Award, the Welles Hangen Award for Distinguished Journalism, a George Foster Peabody, National Women's Political Caucus/Radcliffe College Exceptional Merit Media Awards, the Edward Weintal Journalism Prize, and the Silver Angel Excellence in the Media Award. Poggioli was part of the NPR team that won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the war in Kosovo. In 2009, she received the Maria Grazia Cutulli Award for foreign reporting.
In 2000, Poggioli received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University. In 2006, she received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston together with Barack Obama.
Prior to this honor, Poggioli was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences "for her distinctive, cultivated and authoritative reports on 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia." In 1990, Poggioli spent an academic year at Harvard University as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
From 1971 to 1986, Poggioli served as an editor on the English-language desk for the Ansa News Agency in Italy. She worked at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. She was actively involved with women's film and theater groups.
The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in romance languages and literature. She later studied in Italy under a Fulbright Scholarship.
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NPR's Sylvia Poggioli has been traveling with the pope all week — averaging three hours of sleep per night. Here's what it's like being among the 76 journalists following Pope Francis. -
Starting his three-day visit as a migrant from Cuba was intentional. In a speech to Congress, he's expected to challenge positions along the political and social spectrum with more straight talk.
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The pope celebrated Mass before a huge crowd in Revolution Square in Havana. His visit is intended to show solidarity with Cuba's long-suffering Catholic Church.
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On Thursday, the Vatican releases Pope Francis' document on the environment and poverty. He has said he believes global warming is a moral, and man-made, issue — angering climate change skeptics. -
Italy, a leading destination for migrants, says it wants to help save them but doesn't want to keep all of them. Meanwhile, some EU countries are closing their borders to migrants. -
Vertical farms, food trucks, tropical forests and the supermarket of the future are on display at Expo 2015 in Milan. Exhibits from 145 countries focus on how to feed the planet sustainably. -
Italy holds regional elections on Sunday. Trying to make a comeback is scandal-plagued former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. When he joined Instagram, he posted more than 60 photos his first day. -
Blockbusters like Ben-Hur were filmed at Cinecittà, a 100-acre movie metropolis, during its heyday. After decades of hard times, a tax credit has sparked a revival of "Hollywood on the Tiber." -
In just four days, some 7,000 migrants on dozens of flimsy vessels were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea. Italian authorities are scrambling to find shelters for them.
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At a charity center in Sicily, survivors of the dangerous sea crossings from Libya to Italy face legal and economic limbo and a frosty welcome. But it's still better than the places they fled.
