Ron Claiborne Official Biography

Ron Claiborne is an ABC News correspondent and “Good Morning America” weekend news reader. In this role, Claiborne brings morning viewers the latest news headlines throughout the broadcast. His work can also be seen on “World News Tonight with David Muir” and “Nightline”.

Throughout his nearly three decades at the network, he has covered the 2008 presidential election, logging countless hours on the campaign trail bringing viewers firsthand reports from the road, traced his ancestry back to Ghana where he learned about his relatives and the land his family once lived, and tested the effects of sleep deprivation through a World News Tonight experiment. He has covered three presidential campaigns and reported on two Gulf Wars for the network.

Claiborne is an award-winning journalist and was part of the ABC News team that won a 2000 Emmy award for the network’s coverage of the seizure of Elian Gonzalez in Miami. In 2003, Claiborne was an Ochberg Fellow with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma – a center affiliated with the University of Washington.

Claiborne joined ABC News in 1986 as a general assignment correspondent based in Boston where he regularly reported for “World News,” “Nightline” and “Good Morning America.” He has covered a wide variety of stories for ABC News, including: legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts; the Boston Catholic Church scandal in 2002; the Elian Gonzalez custody battle in Miami; the Yugoslavia conflict in Belgrade; the 1992 presidential campaign and the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Prior to joining ABC News in 1986, Claiborne was a general assignment correspondent for WNYW-TV in New York City. From 1980 to 1982, Claiborne worked as a reporter at the New York Daily News where he covered New York Metropolitan news, city politics, City Hall and state government. From 1977 to 1980, Claiborne was a reporter and editor for the United Press International wire service. He began his journalism career at the Richmond (California) Independent newspaper in 1976.

Claiborne holds a BA in psychology from Yale University and a master’s degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is a native of San Francisco, California and resides in New York City.