SO INSPIRING:
NIGERIAN-IRISH American Ace Broadcaster, ADAORA UDOJI Shines as ADJUNCT PROFESSOR at New York UNIVERSITY…Acclaimed by TIME Magazine as ‘Anchor of Future News on News Deeply’-famous media tech startup
*Earlier worked for Cables News Network, ABC News
*Reports international stories covering Africa, the Middle East and Europe
*Co-host of ‘The Takeaway with John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji in 2008’, a nationally syndicated co-production on WNYC, The New York Times, BBC, WGBH-Boston and PRI
*Covered Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Vatican, World Economy, Sporting events as in British Open and the Tour De France
*Contributes to Good Morning America, World News Weekend, ABC Radio
*Writes extensively on topics of being a Nigerian woman, beating cancer and Hurricane Katrina
*Served as Board-member of the Montclair Film Festival, Women’s Advisory Board at NBC Universal and still a Woodrow Wilson fellow
*NAMED one of 25 Most Influential African Americans by Essence Magazine, Honoree for the World Diversity Leadership Conference at the United Nations
*HER Father is Godfrey Udoji, former chief engineer for the city of Dearborn, Michigan and mother Mary, former director of Washtenaw County Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan
BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ADAORA UDOJI is a shinning example of how some Nigerians hold their heads high anywhere in the world in whatever careers they put their minds. She is not only beautiful, very intelligent and endowed with lots of intelligence, this Nigerian-Irish American native has been the Adjunct Professor in New York University (NYU) from 1995 till date.
Udoji, a multiple, award-wining brilliant media professional is a media innovator, producer and investor who produces content at the intersection of emerging technologies such as: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI). She is an adviser to VR-AR Association-NYC Chapter, an adjunct professor as earlier mentioned at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in charge of the Tisch School of the Arts, and an occasional investor.
Previously, she was Chief Storyteller at Rothenberg Ventures and interim president of the highly acclaimed media-tech startup, ‘News Deeply’, which Time Magazine calls, “the future of news”. She has also served as a board-member of the Montclair Film Festival and the Women’s Advisory Board at NBC Universal. She was also a Woodrow Wilson fellow and subsequently founded ‘The Boshia Group’, a network of content and operational strategists, producers and storytellers. She is among a small group of journalists who have worked in network and cable news, as well as public radio. She is also on the list of 20 Black Angels Worth Knowing For Minority Startups.
For the records, Udoji’s father is Godfrey Udoji, former chief engineer for the city of Dearborn, Michigan, and mother Mary, former director of Washtenaw County Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has lived on three continents including Africa, Europe and North America, and holds dual American and Irish citizenship.
Meanwhile, Udoji earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan. After a stint in the communications office at Michigan’s Business School and WUOM, the public radio station, she went on to graduate from UCLA School of Law. During that time she externed for the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall, United States Federal Judge, Central District of California, Los Angeles, and clerked for the I.R.S.
But how did she start her journey into the media world? Our reporter gathered that Udoji began her journalism career at ABC News in 1995 as an off-air reporter working for Cynthia McFadden covering the OJ Simpson criminal trial and other legal stories. She became an associate producer for ABC News covering the presidential election as a member of the Dole/Kemp press corp, the TWA 800 crash, as well as working on documentary about death row.
The network named her a foreign correspondent in 2000 when she was based in London reporting international stories covering Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Udoji covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Vatican, the world economy and sporting events like the British Open and the Tour De France. She also contributed to ‘Good Morning America’, ‘World News Weekend’ and ‘ABC Radio’.
In 1996 she became an associate producer for ABC News covering the presidential election, the TWA 800 crash, as well as working on documentary about death row. The network named her a foreign correspondent in 2000 where she was based in London reporting international stories covering Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
At Cables News Network (CNN), she served as a New York-based correspondent covering stories including the 2004 presidential election, Hurricane Katrina, and the West Virginia Sago mine disaster for the network’s television and radio outlets. On April 25, 2006, she signed with Court TV News as an anchor.
Udoji expanded into public radio as the co-host of ‘The Takeaway with John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji in 2008’, a nationally syndicated co-production by WNYC, The New York Times, BBC, WGBH-Boston and PRI. She covered the presidential election of Barack Obama, reporting on her fourth presidential campaign and election. She has also contributed to ‘Good Morning America’, ‘World News Weekend’ and ‘ABC Radio’.
From 2013-2014 she was the interim president of News Deeply. She has written extensively on the topics of being a Nigerian woman, beating cancer and Hurricane Katrina. She is an angel investor who graduated from the Pipeline Fellowship program.
Having worked across the creative and business sides of television, radio, internet, corporate and venture capital, Udoji is often quoted in the press. In a 2017 article for Immerse magazine titled ‘Who is VR for?’, Senior Consultant at the Tribeca Film Institute, Ingrid Kopp described Adaora Udoji as “advisor, teacher and all-round-badass.” In another Buzzfeed article from 2017, she talks about “What It’s Actually Like to be a Woman in VR”.
Awards and Recognition:
Udoji was a member of the CNN news team covering Hurricane Katrina in and around New Orleans, Louisiana for which the network won a Peabody Award. She was also among the team at ABC News awarded a Cine Golden Eagle award for an ABC News documentary on death row. Udoji was recognized by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for contributions to ABC’s coverage of the Afghan War in 2002.
In 2009, Udoji was named one of the 25 Most Influential African Americans by Essence Magazine. In 2007 she was an Honoree for the World Diversity Leadership Conference at the United Nations. In 2013, she was a Pipeline Fellow. She has been recognized for her contributions to CNN’s 2005 Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University and Peabody Awards and by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for reporting at ABC News. She was invited to participate in the Jones of New York Little Book Campaign, being a recipient of the Forty Under Forty Achievement Award by the Network Journal.
She has also been a featured presenter for MIT Solve, Producers Guild of America-East, Games for Change Festival, NYC Media Lab, Microsoft, Panasonic, BinderCon, Versions, ARInAction, Girls Who Code, the StartUp Institute NYC, the New York Women Social Entrepreneurs,[20] ACLU, New York Women in Film and Television, the Feminist Press, the Council of Urban Professionals, Internet Week NYC, SXSW and the New York Women in Communications Foundation. Certainly, Udoji is a success story.
