Sheila Tefft

Professor Sheila Tefft is originally from Wisconsin who started working at an Iowa newspaper shortly after college. Having a desire to always go "international" however, she attended graduate school at the University of London for two years. Even though, in her words, she was unsure "why she came home", her career really took off when she worked in Atlanta and Chicago as a newspaper reporter.

Fulfilling her urge to go "international", Sheila left Chicago to work in Asia for 12 years where she freelanced and eventually landed with the Christian Science Monitor working for the newspaper and radio outlets. Her occupational travels in Asia took her to places such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. She spent four and a half years working in China, and eventually met her husband in India.

While in Asia, Sheila covered a variety of topics - business in India; social trends and politics with the CSM; war coverage in Kashmir, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan.

After completing her Asian Tour (she has the t-shirt), Sheila came back to the US with her husband and began part two of her career teaching journalism at Emory University.

Sheila had this to say about the importance of having bi-lingual or even tri-lingual skills while reporting overseas...