Abigail Leonard is an award-winning international reporter and news producer, previously based in Tokyo, where she was a frequent contributor to NPR, Time, and New York Times video. Her stories have also appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Vox. Before moving to Japan, she wrote and produced long-form news documentaries as a staff producer for PBS, ABC and Al Jazeera America. Stories she reported have earned a National Headliner Award, an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and a James Beard Foundation Media Award Nomination. She was a 2011 East-West Center Japan Fellow and 2010 UN Foundation Journalism Fellow. She served as First Vice President of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, a 2000-member national press organization, and also chaired its scholarship program. 
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Before she became a journalist, she was a middle school teacher for the New Orleans Public School District through Teach for America. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's in Science, Health and Environmental Journalism from NYU. She now lives in Washington DC, where she enjoys riding her electric bicycle with her husband and three awesome kids.  ​​

Photo: Sissela Johansson