Kerry Sanders has been NBC’s Miami-based correspondent since 1996, covering news mainly in the South and throughout Latin America. Sanders contributes regularly to “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “Today,” MSNBC and occasionally to “Dateline NBC.”

This week, Kerry was kind enough to tape a segment for us about what it takes to make it in this business. Please enjoy.

Biography

Kerry Sanders covers breaking news and feature stories for NBC News. He has more than 20 years experience providing in-the-field-reports during hurricanes. He was a member of the NBC Nightly News reporting team that was awarded a Peabody and the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

Sanders was also one of NBC’s embedded reporters during the Iraq war, traveling with the U.S. Marine Corps. He reported on various battles, including the harsh 11-day conflict in Nasariyah. In addition, Sanders has extensively covered the war on terror in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Sanders has received other numerous national awards. He was awarded an Emmy as a member of the NBC News team reporting on the 2008 national election. He was also awarded an Emmy in 2005 as a member of the NBC News team reporting on Hurricane Katrina. In 2000, he won the Overseas Press Club Award for his coverage in Kosovo. In 1994 Sanders was honored with the prestigious Columbia-duPont, recognized for his reporting from Haiti as a military coup rocked the country. Sanders shared another Columbia-duPont award for his compelling coverage of the widespread devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Sanders was also a co-recipient of the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, and the George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Andrew and the aftermath of the storm.

Among other honors, Sanders also received the National Headliner Award (the Persian Gulf War, reporting from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), the Wolfson Media Award (Haiti: A Country in Crisis) and two regional Emmy awards.

Before he was hired by the network in May 1996, Sanders spent five years at WTVJ-TV, the NBC-owned station in Miami that has often served as a launching board for reporters destined for national careers. While at WTVJ, Sanders was a regular contributor for “Today.” His reports included coverage of the Alas Airline crash in the Dominican Republic, the American Airlines Crash in Columbia and the ATF siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

Sanders built the early portion of his television experience around learning to cover fast-breaking news in Florida, the nation’s fourth most populous state. Before settling in Miami, he worked for 5 and a half years at WTVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Tampa. In the early 1980s, Kerry worked at the ABC affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla. and the CBS affiliate in Ft. Myers, Fla. Long interested in foreign affairs and broadcasting, Sanders began his career as a 20-year-old in Lima, Peru. He was a newsreader for Radio del Pacifico.

Sanders grew up along the East Coast, spending most of his early years in Sudbury, Mass. He attended three high schools in Massachusetts, Peru and Orlando. Sanders graduated cum laude from the University of South Florida with a liberal arts degree (emphasis in journalism) in 1982.

While attending high school in Lima, Sanders learned Spanish, a language that is most helpful in Miami where often English is not spoken.