FRONTLINE REPORTING FROM COVID HOTSPOTS
July 2, 2020 at 4:00PM Hawaii
Speaker Biographies
Daniel BEEKMAN
Staff Reporter, The Seattle Times, Washington, USA @DBeekman
Daniel Beekman is a staff reporter at The Seattle Times covering Seattle government
and politics who has been reporting COVID-19 stories. He was previously a staff
reporter at the New York Daily News. Mr. Beekman interned in the Beijing bureau of
the Los Angeles Times in 2006 and was a United States Fulbright Fellow in China in
2007 and 2008. He was a fellow in the 2015 China-United States Journalists Exchange.
Ruth CABAL
Senior Correspondent, CNN Philippines, Manila, Philippines @ruthcabal15
Ruth Cabal has been in the media industry for nearly 20 years as a broadcast journalist
and anchor. She is currently news anchor and senior correspondent for CNN
Philippines, one of five CNN franchises in Asia. CNN Philippines is the country’s only
predominantly English-language channel on free-to-air television and is also on cable
and paid television. Ms. Cabal anchors one of the station’s daily English primetime newscasts – Newsroom,
and hosts a weekly talk show, On the Record. Her newscasts have included daily reports on COVID-19. As
a senior correspondent, she produces investigative and special reports. Recent stories include orphans of
the drug war, gangs in the national penitentiary, and the Duterte administration’s anti-corruption campaign.
Previously, Ms. Cabal was a senior reporter at GMA Network Inc. for more than a decade, producing special
and investigative reports on national issues including a series of special reports for the 2010 presidential
election, which won the Silver Trophy at New York Festivals’ International TV and Film Awards 2011.
Ms. Cabal is also a part-time professor of journalism at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She
earned her master’s degree in journalism as a fellow of the Konrad Adenaeuer-Asian Center for Journalism
at Ateneo de Manila University and her bachelor’s degree in art studies at the University of the Philippines.
Ms. Cabal was a fellow in the East-West Center’s 2019 Senior Journalists Seminar.
Ramy INOCENCIO
Asia Correspondent, CBS News, Beijing, China @RamyInocencio
Ramy Inocencio is the Asia correspondent for CBS News, based in Beijing. He joined
CBS News in April 2019 and contributes to all broadcasts and platforms. He has
covered COVID-19 in many Asian hot spots including Wuhan, Beijing, Hong Kong,
Daegu, Seoul, and Tokyo. Mr. Inocencio has two decades of experience reporting
across Asia, America and Europe covering numerous international news stories of our era with live
coverage and original reporting of major geopolitical events, natural disasters and emerging technology
trends around the globe. Before joining CBS News, Mr. Inocencio was a New York-based anchor and
correspondent for "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia." At Bloomberg Television, he covered the first face-to-face
summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping from Mar-a-Lago and traveled
across the United States in 2015 for "Wiring the World," his technology innovation series. He also anchored
for Bloomberg Radio and launched two daily podcasts on U.S.-Asia Pacific economic and financial ties.
Prior to Bloomberg, Mr. Inocencio was The Wall Street Journal's deputy Asia-Pacific editor for video
streaming operations and host of the WSJ's weekly technology show "Digits" in Hong Kong. Previously,
he was CNN International's Asia business correspondent based in Hong Kong and CNN's NASDAQ
reporter in New York City.
A champion of newsroom diversity, internationalism and volunteerism, Mr. Inocencio has served as
national senior vice president for the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and as global co-lead
of Bloomberg's Pan-Asian Community (BPAC). In 2016, he was named one of the "50 Best Asian
Americans in Business" by the New York-based Asian American Business Development Center. He is a
2009 fellowship recipient of the East-West Center’s Asia-Pacific Leadership Program and a 2019
fellow in the EWC's Asia-Pacific Journalism Fellows program to Taiwan.
Aneela KHALID
National Correspondent, Independent Urdu, Peshawar, Pakistan @aneelakhaled
Aneela Khalid is the national correspondent for the Independent Urdu, an online news
organization that runs under a licensing agreement with the British publisher of The
Independent. Ms. Khalid has been working as a journalist for 13 years. She has been
covering COVID-19 in Peshawar along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border including
issues connected to disinformation, rumors and stigma among those who have contracted COVID-19, and
challenges faced by the Pakistan government in combatting the pandemic. Ms. Khalid was a fellow in the
East-West Center’s Pakistan-United States Journalists Exchange.
Saumya KHANDELWAL
Freelance Photojournalist, New Delhi, India @saumyaphotos
Saumya Khandelwal is an independent photojournalist based in New Delhi, India,
contributing for The New York Times and National Geographic among others. Her
photos recently ran in National Geographic’s story on the mass migration of Indian
workers leaving cities under COVID-19 lockdown. A Getty Images Instagram Grantee
2017 for her work on “Child Brides of Shravasti,” her photos focus on gender and environmental issues.
Nominated for World Press Photo 6X6 Global Talent Program from the Asia region in 2019, Ms.
Khandelwal has built a diverse body of work spanning journalism and documentary genres of photography
over the past six years.She previously worked with Thomson Reuters and the national daily Hindustan
Times. She has also contributed to The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Guardian, Bloomberg
Businessweek, Stern, Der Speigel, Nzz Am Sonntag, MIT Technology Review, Virginia Quarterly Review,
Vanity Fair and Caravan as well as NGOS including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Malala Fund
and Path India. Recipient of the National Foundation of India Award 2017, Ms. Khandelwal's work has
also been exhibited at Getty Images Gallery in London, the India Photo Festival in Hyderabad, and Goa
Photo Festival; and digitally exhibited at the Women in Photography slideshow in Singapore. Ms.
Khandewal participated in the East-West Center’s Pakistan-India Journalists Exchange and
Dialogue.
Jungmin LEE
Reporter, Korea Broadcasting System, Seoul, South Korea @jungminleee98
Jungmin Lee has been working as a KBS reporter (Korean Broadcasting System) since
2003. During her career, she has spent most of her time covering foreign affairs issues
around the Korean peninsula. This year, as a team director of the Division of Foreign
affairs and also a member of the Data Journalism Team at KBS. She has intensively
focused on the COVID-19 response of the Korean government and international societies. Ms. Lee was a
fellow in the East-West Center’s 2015 Korea-United States Journalists Exchange.
Linda LEW
Reporter, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong SAR @Lindadalew
Linda Lew covers Chinese society, diplomacy, and recently the coronavirus for the
South China Morning Post. She was on the ground in Wuhan, China in January when
the virus was still called a “mystery pneumonia.” She has followed the COVID-19
story ever since in China and Hong Kong SAR. Born in China and raised in New
Zealand, she joined the South China Morning Post in 2018 as a reporter. She studied at the University of
Auckland and Tsinghua University in Beijing, where she graduated with a master’s degree in global
business journalism.
Annalisa BURGOS (Moderator)
KITV-4 Island News, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA @annalisaburgos
Annalisa Burgos is a veteran international TV news anchor and reporter. She joined
KITV-4 Island News in September 2019 and anchors Good Morning Hawaii
Weekends. She has 20+ years of journalism experience in a dozen cities across the
United States and Asia, most recently Manila. While in the Philippines, she interviewed newsmakers and
covered the Duterte administration and local and international politics as anchor and managing editor at the
ABS-CBN News Channel (also The Filipino Channel). She also hosted and produced a popular “Food
Diplomacy” segment, where she talked politics and culture with diplomats from across the world. Prior to
that, she was an anchor and correspondent for Channel NewsAsia in Singapore and hosted a weekly food
and travel show "What's Cooking.” Before moving to Asia, Ms. Burgos worked in New York as an anchor,
reporter and editor for major media companies including Forbes, CNBC, HGTV, Yahoo and Bloomberg.
Born in Los Angeles, she graduated from UCLA and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
She was a 2019 Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center, studying immigration policy and issues in
Hawaii, Korea, the Philippines and Australia.
