Najia Ashar

Broadcast journalist with more than a decade of experience in Pakistan. She has been a senior anchor and producer at Geo News, Pakistan’s most reputable news channel. In a highly competitive process, she was selected to be a 2014-15 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. There she focused on honing her strategic leadership and digital storytelling skills while developing a prototype for innovative, animated security and safety guidelines. Ashar was a frequent public speaker in the Stanford community. During her broadcast career, Ashar has covered major natural disasters, such as the 2005 earthquake and the 2010 floods, as well as man-made disasters such as the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir and the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. She anchored the first report of the attack on Malala Yousafzai in 2012. Ashar has a master’s degree in international relations. In 2013, she was also named a fellow at The East-West Center. She is passionate about journalism and truly believes that life is a never-ending learning process.