SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Ellen Knickmeyer, a foreign correspondent who has worked for The Associated Press, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, has been named the AP’s San Francisco-based environmental reporter.
Knickmeyer previously worked 15 years for the AP, starting in the mid-1990s in the Oklahoma City and San Francisco bureaus before serving as Rome correspondent and West Africa bureau chief, overseeing conflicts and reconstruction in war zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
During her career, Knickmeyer has covered environmental issues around the globe. She has examined government regulation of groundwater polluters in California, desertification and its impacts on society, elaborate schemes to deal with Venice’s rising waters and environmental issues in the Adriatic.
In her new AP position, which she starts July 14, Knickmeyer will be focusing on the California drought, alternative energy, natural resources and land use, among other topics.
“Ellen is a persistent, experienced reporter known for her high standards and vast knowledge,” said Traci Carl, AP’s West regional manager overseeing news for 13 states, including California. “We are thrilled she is returning to the AP.”
From 2005 to 2009, Knickmeyer held bureau chief positions for the Washington Post in Cairo and Baghdad, where the bureau’s work twice was nominated for Pulitzer Prizes.
Over the next two years, she obtained a master’s degree in public administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University and wrote articles about the Middle East and North Africa “youth bulge” generation and Arab Spring under a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Since 2011, Knickmeyer has been stationed in the Middle East for the Wall Street Journal, first as Saudi correspondent and recently as Gulf correspondent.
