Erin McLaughlin
Erin McLaughlin
Early Life
McLaughlin was an athlete model in junior high school and high school.
Erin participated in school and church affiliated volleyball, softball, basketball, soccer, powder-puff football, and football.
She went to college on a vocal scholarship after an impromptu wedding performance with a college vocal professor.
She grew up volunteering for various non-profits.
Her father helped to charter The Old Savannah City Mission which feeds, educates, and rehabilitates men and women in the Savannah area.
She grew up singing, starting at the age of five; and, she grew up traveling with her father, a Southern Gospel lead singer.
Erin played alto saxophone for eight years in a jazz band. Her mother was a violinist. [19]
She was the first female at her high school to letter in football.[19]
Education
After graduating in Business administration with high honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley's Haas Undergraduate Program, McLaughlin joined CNN as an intern in 2003, based in San Francisco. A move to CNN Atlanta quickly followed in 2004, where she worked as a researcher on the international assignment desk, before her switch to London in 2010.
Career
Prior to becoming a full time correspondent at CNN, McLaughlin worked on many stories as a producer. She was part of the Emmy-nominated team for CNN's coverage of the Detroit attempted terror attack in 2009, and produced coverage of stories as diverse as the Anders Breivik trial in Norway, the 2011 London Riots, and the trial of Saddam Hussein. McLaughlin has played a key role in reporting on terror attacks across Europe, including the Paris attacks in January and November of 2015, the Brussels bombings in March 2016 and the Berlin attack at the end of 2016. She also reported exclusively on how ISIS recruits children and then sends them to their death as suicide bombers. She also helped coordinate CNN's coverage of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.[2]
She has covered a range of stories in the UK and Europe, including Britains decision to leave the EU, the trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito and the Conclave of Pope Francis, with whom she also travelled on his visit to South Korea. McLaughlin has extensive experience reporting from Jerusalem and was on the ground to cover the wave of violence that gripped the city and the West Bank in 2015. She also reported from Moscow for Minsk II, and from Ukraine during the build up to its elections, which saw Petro Poroshenko named president.[2]
She has been central to CNN's coverage of aviation disasters.
For the search for MH370, McLaughlin was in Perth and Reunion Island when the first piece of wreckage linked to the incident was found. She was inside Sharm el-Sheikh's security screening area following the Metro Jet plane crash. In Amsterdam, she spoke to victims' families after the downing of MH17. She also reported from the French Alps for the Germanwings crash, where it was revealed the plane's co-pilot purposely crashed the plane.[2]
Currently, McLaughlin is a corespondent for NBC.