Soledad O'Brien Noted NBC and CNN broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien visited the Michigan campus on Tuesday, March 31, sponsored by the Center for the Education of Women’s Frances and Sidney Lewis Fund. In an enlightening and entertaining afternoon presentation at the Power Center, O’Brien shared her experiences and observations about diversity with an audience of over 700 people. During the course of the day, O’Brien also sat down with CEW staff members for a wide ranging conversation about her background and about a number of topics related to her career and to many of the issues important to CEW.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien

Born to an Afro-Cuban mother and Australian-Irish father, Soledad O’Brien and all five of her brothers and sisters graduated from Harvard University. Her parents are educators who “raised us to value education and to believe in success through hard work….Though in some homes children may be labeled ‘the smart one or the athletic one,’ my parents never did that. We lived with the message ‘We expect all of you to succeed in any ways you want…. You may have to work harder than someone else, but you can figure it out.’”

O’Brien also had role models in her four older siblings. “I watched them excel and said to myself, ‘Hey, if they can do it, so can I.’” Her mother had a number of family mottos, like “In this family everybody plays together” and “Don’t let other people define who you are.” Now, says O’Brien, she and her husband are raising their four children with the same messages.

A Journalism Career and Motherhood

O’Brien was an English major who planned to become a doctor. While taking an organic chemistry class with her older sister Estella, however, O’Brien realized that Estella–who’s now an eye surgeon in Harlem–“clearly got the science better than I. I could memorize a ton, but I didn’t have a scientific mind.”

What then? Without a career goal “it’s easy to flounder, but I was lucky.” She got an internship at a TV station in Boston and knew right away that she’d found her world. “I loved the people running down the halls, trying to get the scripts done in time. I loved the screaming. I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do.”

She describes herself as the person “who has to be in the front row with pencils sharpened, who makes list, who has to be there early and be prepared.”

After years as an anchor and reporter on various TV stations and networks, O’Brien was asked by her bosses at CNN to switch her career focus to creating longer pieces, such as her recent 6-hour documentary Black in America. “I miss breaking news, jumping on a plane to cover a story. I get to do some of that, but my life has changed. With four kids it’s harder.” As for her work with documentaries: “I’ve discovered that I’m good at dealing with issues that are entrenched in America and that people have a hard time talking about."

She is now working on two new projects: Black in America, Part Two and Latino in America. In her current documentary career, the kinds of pressures O’Brien faces have shifted. Because she no longer has to get up at 3 a.m. for an early morning news show, she’s “less tired on a day-to-day basis. But I am travelling a lot more. I have more flexibility in some ways. I can take care of cupcake day at my daughter’s school!” But sometimes when she’s on the road, she’s not there to help. For her daughter’s recent homework project on the vernal equinox, she had to help proofread the report on her Blackberry. “It’s hard when you’re a mom to juggle different things. But my husband is great.” Because both O’Brien and her husband travel a lot, “We have to run a tight ship. The household can’t run amok when we’re gone, so we have strict rules about TV, bedtimes and other household routines.”

The Importance of Mentoring

O’Brien says she’s had “tons of mentors” throughout her career. Some people seem to think that mentoring means “I’ve found Person X, and they’ve agreed to stick it out with me for the long term.” But O’Brien has found it more effective to have several mentors–bosses and colleagues she can contact for “in the moment” mentoring when she needs advice, especially since these busy people “don’t have time to hear the whole story.” O’Brien also values the peer mentoring she gets from her sisters (about being a new mom, for example) and from girlfriends who know her well and can give honest, constructive feedback. “I’m a good mentee. If I get advice from someone, I follow up: ‘Thanks. Here’s what I did. Your advice helped.’” O’Brien says she’s also proud to advise others. “There are several people whom I mentor. I’m too busy to be fully invested in someone else’s career, but I’m very willing to offer my advice in short conversations.”

Leadership

In the course of her work, O’Brien has met and interviewed many famous and not-so-famous leaders. Asked to identify an aspect of leadership that she’s observed in these people, O’Brien described “a certain amount of stick-to-itiveness; not giving up; the ability to just keep going–whether they’re community leaders in New Orleans after Katrina or whether they’re running for president. It’s my message when I give commencement addresses: ‘Just keep doing the work.’ That’s also terrifying because you have to do the work; there are no shortcuts.”