Biography
Rukmini Callimachi is a foreign correspondent for
The New York Times covering Islamic extremism, including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Callimachi
has exposed the institutionalization of sex slavery by ISIS, linked child labor in
gold mines in Senegal to banks in Switzerland, and revealed massacres committed by
government forces from the Ivory Coast to Mali. She was awarded the George Polk Award
for her reporting on the millions of dollars in ransoms that European governments
secretly paid to free hostages taken by the Islamic State. Prior to joining
The New York Times, she was the West Africa correspondent for the Associated Press. Callimachi won the
Michael Kelly Award and was the first journalist in the 75-year history of the Overseas
Press Club to win both the Hal Boyle and the Bob Considine Awards in the same year.
She received the 2016 International Center for Journalists Integrity in Journalism
Award for her exceptional contribution to exposing crimes against humanity. Callimachi
delivered the 2016 Marie Colvin Memorial Lecture at Stony Brook University's School
of Journalism.
