Renée Montagne
{{Short description|American journalist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Renée Montagne
| image = Renee.jpg
| caption = Montagne in 2019
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|December 1948}}
| birth_place = Oceanside, California, United States
| death_date =
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| nationality = American
| education = University of California, Berkeley
| occupation = retired NPR correspondent and host
| years_active = 1973–2025
| title =
| spouse =
| children =
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| credits =
}}
Renée Montagne ({{IPAc-en|m|ɒ|n|ˈ|t|eɪ|n}}) is an American former radio journalist and was the co-host (with Steve Inskeep and David Greene) of National Public Radio's weekday morning news program, Morning Edition, from May 2004 to November 11, 2016. Montagne and Inskeep succeeded longtime host Bob Edwards, initially as interim replacements, and Greene joined the team in 2012.{{cite web| url= https://www.npr.org/people/4510160/david-greene | work=People at NPR | title= David Greene | publisher= NPR | access-date= 2015-09-30}} Montagne had served as a correspondent and occasional host since 1989.{{cite web| url= https://www.npr.org/people/2100929/renee-montagne | work=People at NPR | title= Renee Montagne | publisher= NPR | access-date= 2011-01-27}} She usually broadcast from NPR West in Culver City, California, a Los Angeles suburb.
Early life
Montagne was born in December 1948 in Oceanside, California,{{cite web| title= Not your average day job| url= http://www.azdailysun.com/news/article_0b60fe32-bd36-509b-b96c-756d48be130d.html | date= November 20, 2008 | publisher= Arizona Daily Sun | access-date= 2011-01-27}} into a Marine Corps family. As is common in the lives of children of career military families, she moved often while growing up, including living in Hawaii and various places on the West Coast. An alumna of Cupertino High School, she was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2012.{{cite web| url= http://www.chs.fuhsd.org/cms/page_view;jsessionid=b4dbsgr04952lsioocp7b65f?d=x&piid=&vpid=1258812978995| title= CHS Hall of Fame 2012| date= May 2012| access-date= 2012-06-04| archive-date= 2015-09-23| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203115/http://www.chs.fuhsd.org/cms/page_view;jsessionid=b4dbsgr04952lsioocp7b65f?d=x&piid=&vpid=1258812978995| url-status= dead}} She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973{{cite web| url= http://alumni.berkeley.edu/news/press-releases/cal-alumni-association-announces-2010-alumnus-year-richard-n-goldman-41 | title= The Cal Alumni Association Announces the 2010 Alumnus of the Year Richard N. Goldman '41 | date= December 18, 2009 | publisher= University of California, Berkeley | access-date= 2011-01-27}} with a degree in English.
Career
Montagne got her start in radio as news director for KPOO community radio in San Francisco while attending UC–Berkeley. She also worked for Pacific News Service in San Francisco.
From 1980 through 1986, she worked in New York City as a freelance reporter and producer for both NPR and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. During this period, she covered the arts and science for NPR. From 1987 to 1989, she was co-host with Robert Siegel of NPR's evening news magazine, All Things Considered.{{cite web| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/18/arts/all-things-considered-gets-new-co-hosts.html | title= All Things Considered Gets New Co-hosts | date= March 18, 1987 | work= The New York Times | access-date= 2011-01-27}}
In 1990, Montagne covered the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in South Africa. She remained in South Africa for three years focusing on the area, where she won, along with the NPR reporting team, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for their coverage of South Africa's first fully democratic elections.
File:Afghan National Army training itself (4999880909).jpg
In May 2004, Montagne and Steve Inskeep became interim co-hosts for NPR's Morning Edition, replacing long-time host Bob Edwards who was reassigned as a senior correspondent.{{cite web|title=Bob Edwards forced out of 'Morning Edition'|date=23 March 2004 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4586432|publisher=NBC News|access-date=17 December 2011}} They became permanent co-hosts in December 2004.
The following year, Montagne went to Rome to cover the funeral of Pope John Paul II for NPR's Morning Edition. She also has traveled frequently to Afghanistan to report on the war that began in 2001. She has been recognized by the Overseas Press Club for her work from Afghanistan.
In 2011, Montagne was among the news anchors who attended the traditional off-the-record luncheon with the U.S. president (in this case, Barack Obama) in advance of his State of the Union Address.{{cite web| url= http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/25/who-scored-the-best-seats-at-lunch-with-obama/ | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110221115145/http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/25/who-scored-the-best-seats-at-lunch-with-obama/ | url-status= dead | archive-date= February 21, 2011 | title= Which anchor scored the best seat at lunch with Obama? | date= January 25, 2011 | publisher= CNN | work= The 1600 Report (blog) | access-date= 2011-01-27}}
The announcement went public on July 18, 2016, that Montagne would be leaving NPR's Morning Edition after co-hosting it with Steve Inskeep for 12 years.
Her final Morning Edition as co-host was November 11, 2016. A month later, as Special Correspondent/Occasional Host for NPR News, Montagne embarked on a new project: an NPR/collaboration called Lost Mothers.
Montagne, along with ProPublica reporting partner Nina Martin, spent the next year investigating why women are far more likely to die due to giving birth in the U.S. than all other developed nations.
Their investigation focused on why the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is going up while it's going down in nearly every other nation; why African-American women are 3-to-4 times more likely to die than white women; and what's being done to reverse these dire statistics. The series set off a national conversation at a time when few Americans knew that, in the U.S., even a healthy woman with a perfect pregnancy and good health care risks dying, or nearly dying, in childbirth.
The stories, aired and published from 2017 through mid-2018, has been credited with inspiring laws in several states, as well as bills at the federal level aimed at protecting birthing mothers. In a 2018 Forbes op-ed{{Cite web|url=http://fortune.com/2018/09/19/tammy-duckworth-maternal-deaths/|title=Sen. Tammy Duckworth: How We Can End the Maternal Death Epidemic|website=Fortune|access-date=2019-06-30}} arguing for a federal law to end America's “maternal death epidemic,” Senator Tammy Duckworth cited the NPR/ProPublica investigation Lost Mothers. Duckworth also linked directly to Montagne's NPR story on how California succeeded in cutting in half its maternal mortality rate. On 12/21/2018 [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr1318 HR 1318] “Preventing Maternal Deaths Act” was signed into law – a law that incorporated the Senate bill Duckworth had championed in the op-ed.
Renee Montagne announced her retirement on January 23, 2025.{{cite news |last1=Inskeep |first1=Steve |last2=Montagne |first2=Renee |title=NPR's Renee Montagne is retiring after more than 40 years in public radio |url=https://www.npr.org/2025/01/23/nx-s1-5251133/nprs-renee-montagne-is-retiring-after-more-than-40-years-in-public-radio |access-date=23 January 2025 |work=NPR |language=en}}
Awards and recognition
- 1995 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of South African elections
- Overseas Press Club recognition for coverage of the Afghanistan war
- National Association of Black Journalists recognition for a reporting series on Black musicians who fought in wars during the 20th Century
- Harvard Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting - 2018{{Cite web|url=https://shorensteincenter.org/2018-goldsmith-winner/|title=NPR and ProPublica Win the 2018 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center|last=news|first=in In the|date=6 March 2018 |access-date=2019-06-29}}
- George Polk Award - 2017{{Cite web|url=http://liu.edu/George-Polk-Awards|title=George Polk Awards {{!}} LIU|website=liu.edu|access-date=2019-06-29}}
- Peabody Award - 2017{{Cite web|url=http://www.peabodyawards.com/stories/story/2017-peabody-award-winners-77th-annual-peabody-30|title=The Best Stories of 2017|website=www.peabodyawards.com|date=9 May 2018 |access-date=2019-06-29}}
- New York Academy of Medicine Health Equity Journalism Prize - 2018{{Cite web|url=https://nyam.org/awards-grants/academy-awards/health-equity-journalism-prize/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723144608/http://www.nyam.org/awards-grants/academy-awards/health-equity-journalism-prize/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 23, 2018|title=Health Equity Journalism Prize {{!}} New York Academy of Medicine|website=nyam.org|access-date=2019-06-29}}
- National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award (category "Online") - 2018{{Cite web|url=http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=08232018|title=National Academies Announce Winners of 2018 Communication Awards|website=www8.nationalacademies.org|access-date=2019-06-30}}
- Sigma Delta Chi Award Society of Professional Journalists ("Online Reporting" in category "Public Service") - 2017{{Cite web|url=https://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1568|title=Announcing the 2017 Sigma Delta Chi Award winners|website=www.spj.org|access-date=2019-06-30}}
- National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award (category "Digital Media") - 2018{{Cite web|url=http://www.nabj.org/|title=2018 Salute to Excellence Winners - National Association of Black Journalists|website=www.nabj.org|access-date=2019-06-30}}
- Pulitzer Prize Finalist (“Explanatory Reporting” category) - 2018{{Cite web|url=https://www.propublica.org/atpropublica/propublica-npr-collaboration-a-finalist-for-the-pulitzer-prize-for-explanatory-reporting|title=ProPublica/NPR Collaboration a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting|last=ProPublica|date=2018-04-16|website=ProPublica|access-date=2019-06-30}}
- Edward R. Murrow Award (category "Digital Media") - 2018{{Cite web|url=https://rtdna.org/content/2018_national_edward_r_murrow_award_winners|title=2018 National Edward R. Murrow Award Winners|website=rtdna.org|access-date=2019-06-30|archive-date=2019-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619084802/https://rtdna.org/content/2018_national_edward_r_murrow_award_winners|url-status=dead}}
- American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine Awards Finalist (“Public Interest” category) - 2018{{Cite web|url=https://asme.magazine.org/asme/about-asme/pressroom/asme-press-releases/ellies-2018-finalists-announced|title=Ellies 2018 finalists announced|website=ASME|access-date=2019-06-30|archive-date=2019-06-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630144118/https://asme.magazine.org/asme/about-asme/pressroom/asme-press-releases/ellies-2018-finalists-announced|url-status=dead}}
- Columbia University Press "The 2018 Best American Magazine Writing" collection{{Cite book |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-best-american-magazine-writing-2018/9780231189996 |title=The Best American Magazine Writing 2018 |date=December 2018 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231548656 |editor-first=Sid |editor-last=Holt}}
- "The 100 Most Engaging Stories of 2017", Chartbeat{{Cite web|url=http://blog.chartbeat.com/2017/12/19/100-engaging-stories-2017/|title=The 100 Most Engaging Stories of 2017|date=2017-12-19|website=Chartbeat Blog|access-date=2019-06-30}}
- Gracie Award/”Alliance for Women in Media” 2015 for "Outstanding Individual Achievement - Afghanistan Coverage" and “Outstanding Anchor/News Magazine” (NPR's Morning Edition){{Cite web|url=https://allwomeninmedia.org/gracies/2015-gracies-winners/|title=2015 Gracies Winners|website=Alliance for Women in Media|date=17 March 2016 |access-date=2019-06-30}}
- Global Women's Rights Award 2011 "Feminist Majority Foundation" Cited coverage of women in Afghanistan{{Cite web|url=https://www.feminist.org/GlobalWomensRightsAwards/past-honorees.html|title=Global Women's Rights Awards 2016|website=www.feminist.org|access-date=2019-06-30|archive-date=2018-06-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630031040/http://www.feminist.org/GlobalWomensRightsAwards/past-honorees.html|url-status=dead}}
- University of Denver Anvil of Freedom Award – 2008{{Cite web|url=https://magazine.du.edu/campus-community/estlow-center-honors-reporter-for-coverage-of-diverse-communities/|title=Estlow Center honors reporter for coverage of diverse communities|date=2008-04-10|website=University of Denver Magazine|access-date=2019-06-30}}
References
External links
- [https://www.npr.org/people/2100929/renee-montagne People at NPR: Renee Montagne] from the NPR website
- [https://twitter.com/nprmontagne Renee Montagne] on Twitter
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{{succession box | title=Host of Morning Edition | before=Bob Edwards| years=2004 – 2016 (co-host with Steve Inskeep) | after=Rachel Martin and Noel King}}
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Category:American radio journalists
Category:American reporters and correspondents
Category:Radio personalities from California
Category:People from San Diego County, California
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:People from Oceanside, California
Category:Journalists from California