Lisa Ling

Her paternal grandfather, who was from Guangzhou, Guangdong, was one of the first Chinese students allowed to study in the United States in the 1930s.

He earned a degree from New York University and an M.B.A degree from University of Colorado.

He struggled to find a job in the United States.

He moved to California where he eventually opened the first Chinese restaurant in Folsom.

Ling's parents divorced when she was seven years old.

Following the divorce, she and her sister Laura were raised by their father in Carmichael, near Sacramento.

Ling admired reporter Connie Chung and aspired to become a journalist.

Ling's father, Chung Teh "Douglas" Ling, is a Chinese immigrant, born in Hong Kong in 1937.

Her paternal grandmother was born on Labuan, now in modern-day Malaysia.

Lisa J. Ling (born August 30, 1973) is an American journalist and television personality.

She is a news contributor for CBS News.

Ling was educated at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California, graduating in 1991.

She studied at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Ling chose to leave USC before graduating, starting work as a reporter for Channel One News, and electing to "find her education by visiting different countries instead."

Previously, she was the host for This Is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN, a reporter on Channel One News, a co-host on the ABC daytime talk show The View (1999–2002), the host of National Geographic Explorer (2003–2010), and a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show.

She joined The View on August 2, 1999, after beating out a reported 12,000 hopefuls who had auditioned to replace Debbie Matenopoulos.

During her on-air audition for the show Ling got a navel piercing which Barbara Walters "thought was disgusting."

She drew both fire and praise for her comments after the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which she said, "What happened to the United States was a catastrophic event and the worst terrorist attack in human history. Yet maybe before we seek revenge, we should ask the question – why should anyone want to make such an attack on the U.S.?"

Ling left the show after three and a half years towards the end of 2002 to go back to international reporting.

She was responsible for proposing segments like investing for women, and, according to Ling, her goal was to say one thing each day that would make people think, whether it made them cheer or made them throw things at their TV.

Ling accepted an offer to host National Geographic Ultimate Explorer. In 2005, the show moved to the National Geographic Channel and returned to its original name, National Geographic Explorer.

Ling has covered the drug war in Colombia, investigated the notorious MS-13 gang, and explored the culture of U.S. prisons.

She also was allowed to travel into North Korea as part of a medical missionary group, where she and a film team were able to document a rare look into North Korea.

The trip was documented in the 2007 National Geographic documentary "Inside North Korea".

She then became a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show which has featured many of Ling's investigative pieces, including a report on North Korea.

Ling's title is "Oprah Show Investigative Reporter."

She also has reported on bride burning in India, gang rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, child trafficking in Ghana, under cover investigation of Pennsylvanian puppy mills with Main Line Animal Rescue, the immediate aftermath of the hurricane in New Orleans, and the April 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre.

In December 2008, CNN's award-winning documentary Planet in Peril featured Ling in the series' second installment, called "Battlelines".

As a correspondent, she tracked excessive shark fishing in Costa Rica, elephant poaching in Chad, and explored the civil struggle within Nigeria for control over its oil.

In 2010 Ling co-founded the website SecretSocietyOfWomen.com, a forum for women to share their problems anonymously.

Ling later hosted Our America with Lisa Ling on the Oprah Winfrey Network from 2011 to 2014.

Ling was born in Sacramento, California.

Her mother, Mary Mei-yan (née Wang), is a Taiwanese immigrant from Tainan, Taiwan, who served as the head of the Los Angeles office of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.

On February 16, 2011, her show Our America with Lisa Ling premiered on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

Speaking to USC students in 2016, Ling explained, "I think traveling is the best education. If there's one takeaway here tonight, it's to travel. I'm convinced that you are better, smarter, more marketable as a job candidate if you travel."

She is fluent in Spanish.

Ling started in television when she was chosen as one of the four hosts of Scratch, a nationally syndicated teen magazine show based in Sacramento.

At 18, she joined Channel One News as one of their youngest reporters and anchors.

Among her roles was war correspondent, including assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She won several awards for her reporting and documentaries.