Frank Sesno

Frank Sesno is director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University, an Emmy-Award-winning journalist and host and creator of Planet Forward, a groundbreaking Web-to-television show seen on PBS. He is chief executive of Face the Facts USA, a new nonpartisan, multi-platform content hub and civic engagement initiative dedicated to elevating the tone of national debate with provocative facts.

Sesno’s diverse career spans over 30 years of experience, including 21 years at CNN, where Sesno served as White House correspondent, anchor and Washington Bureau Chief. He is currently hosting a 10-part series for public television that explores news and communication in the digital age titled, The Future of News with Frank Sesno, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

As a journalist Sesno has interviewed business and government leaders including U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan; former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch; the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat; former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He covered stories ranging from the Iraq War, the disputed U.S. presidential election of 2000 and the historic series of superpower summits during the 1980s.

Before joining CNN in 1984, Sesno worked as a radio correspondent at the White House and in London for the Associated Press. He has won several prestigious journalistic awards, including an Emmy, several cable ACE awards, and an Overseas Press Club Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Sesno holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College and serves on the Washington Advisory Board of the Posse Foundation, on the Board of Trustees of the Potomac School in McLean, Va., and on the Educational Advisory Board of CINE 2009.