Sharyn Alfonsi joins 60 MINUTES SPORTS as a lead correspondent. She previously worked at ABC News where she was a New York-based reporter for five years who appeared regularly on all of the division’s platforms. Alfonsi made a name for herself while at ABC for her investigative journalism. For WORLD NEWS TONIGHT, she revealed that uniforms to be worn by U.S. Olympic athletes last summer were made in China. Reporting for NIGHTLINE, she showed the often cruel world of the puppy mill industry, exposing factory-like breeding facilities in the Amish country of Pennsylvania.
As a correspondent for the CBS EVENING NEWS, Alfonsi covered wars and was the lead reporter on many domestic and international stories for the network, including the school shootings at Virginia Tech. In 2006, she reported from the Israel-Lebanon border covering the war with Hezbollah and later, the violence in Gaza. Alfonsi also covered the war in Iraq. She has served as substitute anchor for the CBS EVENING NEWS weekend edition and appeared regularly on CBS NEWS SUNDAY MORNING.
Before being promoted to correspondent, Alfonsi was a freelance correspondent for the CBS EVENING NEWS weekend edition, UP TO THE MINUTE and CBS NEWSPATH, the Network's 24-hour news service (December 2003-July 2004).
Alfonsi came to CBS News from the CBS-Owned station WBZ-TV in Boston, where she covered the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal, the Michael Skakel trial, the historic Rhode Island nightclub fire and served as substitute anchor. Prior to that, she was a reporter for KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle, Wash. (1998-2000), where she covered the World Trade Organization riots. Alfonsi was also a general assignment reporter for WVEC–TV Norfolk, Va. (1995-97), where she traveled extensively with the military. She began her career in broadcast journalism at KHBS-TV Ft. Smith, Ark. (1994-95).
Alfonsi grew up in McLean Va. She graduated from the University of Mississippi, Oxford, where she was a James Love Scholar and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science and journalism studies.