Diane Sawyer

— -- Diane Sawyer joined ABC News in February 1989, as co-anchor of "Primetime." In addition to her "Primetime" assignment, Sawyer was named co-anchor of "Good Morning America" in January 1999. She has also served as co-anchor of ABC News' "Turning Point," which premiered in March 1994.

Throughout her tenure with ABC News, Sawyer has traveled extensively across the United States and abroad to report on and investigate a wide range of topics. She has covered nearly every major news event and interviewed a diverse group of newsmakers and personalities.

Most recently, Sawyer traveled to North Korea in October 2006 and brought viewers an unprecedented look inside the secretive country. Throughout the week, Sawyer reported live for "Good Morning America" from the country's capital city of Pyongyang and also hosted a special edition of "Primetime" called "North Korea: Inside The Shadows."

She is one of the few Western journalists ever to report from North Korea on the famine and the government's attempt to keep it secret. In January 2005, Sawyer traveled to Southeast Asia and reported live on the aftermath of the tsunami that left a path of death and destruction behind.

Sawyer's additional overseas reporting includes her coverage of the attempted coup in Moscow, when she made her way into the office of Boris Yeltsin at the moment the attempted Soviet coup was at its crisis.

During the Gulf War, she traveled to Egypt to interview President Hosni Mubarak and to Amman, Jordan, where she interviewed King Hussein and his American-born wife, Queen Noor.

Sawyer reported extensively from Iraq and Kuwait during the 2003 war. She conducted an exclusive interview with one of the main architects of Saddam Hussein's bioweapons program, Dr. Rihab Taha -- nicknamed "Dr. Germ" -- and took a unique ride on a military plane with soldiers wounded in the war. After the war, she had an exclusive interview with Gen.Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command.

In the fall of 2005, Sawyer traveled to New Orleans to report firsthand on the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. She also sat down for an exclusive interview with President Bush live from The White House in the weeks following the hurricane.

During the week of Sept. 11, 2001, Sawyer reported live from Ground Zero and later interviewed more than 60 widows who gave birth after the World Trade Center disaster. She returned to Afghanistan to reunite the women profiled in her landmark 1996 report in which she was one of the first Western journalists to expose the plight of women under Taliban rule.

Sawyer is an award-winning investigative journalist, on topics ranging from biological weapons production in Russia to day care abuse. In 2006, she presented an unprecedented special on the foster care system that looked at the crisis of the system and ways in which children can be saved.

Sawyer brought American viewers a shocking report on the warehousing of Russian children in state-run orphanages; a diary of life inside a maximum security prison for women, where she spent two days and nights; an investigation into the neglect and abuse at state-run institutions for the mentally retarded; and a landmark investigation into pharmacy prescription errors.

Other important investigations include undercover reports on food sanitation at the Food Lion grocery chain; uncovering the questionable business practices of three major televangelists; and neglect and doctor incompetence in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Cleveland.

Sawyer's revealing hidden camera investigation of racial discrimination, which documented the different experiences of blacks and whites in America, also won the grand prize in the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards.

Among Sawyer's many newsmaker interviews, she most recently interviewed actor and director Mel Gibson in October 2006 -- his first television interview since he was arrested in Malibu, Calif., on suspicion of driving under the influence. That same month she also sat down for an exclusive interview with actor and comedian Robin Williams. This was his first television interview since voluntarily admitting himself into rehabilitation for alcohol abuse.

Sawyer's distinguished and headline-making interviews also include: President George W. Bush in his first national interview; Saddam Hussein, the first Western television interview granted by the Iraqi president in nearly a decade; Cuban President Fidel Castro; Robert MacNamara's public apology on Vietnam; Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, the convicted Mafia member who turned against the Gambino crime family and his boss, John Gotti; Ellen DeGeneres, who announced her homosexuality; ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega's first interview from prison; Michael Jackson and his then wife Lisa Marie Presley's only interview; Michael J. Fox's interview about Parkinson's disease and the decision to leave his hit TV show, "Spin City"; and former first lady Nancy Reagan on President Reagan's battle with Alzheimer's disease and their 50-year marriage. Sawyer also had the first interview at home with the Clintons after the 1992 presidential election.

In addition to her DuPont Awards, Robert F. Kennedy awards and numerous Emmys, her many honors include the grand prize of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association, two George Foster Peabody Awards for public service, an IRTS Lifetime Achievement Award, Broadcast Magazine Hall of Fame and the USC Distinguished Achievement in Journalism Award. In 1997, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Before joining ABC News, Sawyer spent nine years at CBS News. She was the first woman to co-anchor "60 Minutes." Prior to that, she co-anchored the "CBS Morning News" and was CBS News' State Department correspondent.

She was podium correspondent for the 1988 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, and a floor correspondent for the 1984 Republican and Democratic National Conventions and for the 1980 Democratic Convention.

Prior to joining CBS News, Sawyer held several positions in the Nixon administration. She was part of the Nixon-Ford transition team from 1974 to 1975. She also assisted former President Nixon in the writing of his memoirs in 1974 and 1975.

Sawyer began her career in broadcasting in 1967 in Louisville, Ky., where she was a reporter for WLKY-TV until 1970.

A native of Glasgow, Ky., and raised in Louisville, Sawyer received a B.A. from Wellesley College in 1967 and completed a semester of law school before deciding on a career in broadcasting.