Five Things Andrea Koppel Learned From Her Dad

Andrea Koppel has been with CNN since 1993 and is currently a congressional correspondent based in the Washington, D.C., bureau. Her last name might lead you to wonder if she’s any relation to the former ABC “Nightline” anchor, Ted Koppel. The following article from USA Weekend Magazine addresses that question:

Yes. She's the eldest of four, and she tells us her dad worried that her name might make a journalism career more difficult. Still, she was drawn to it after a failed career as a trade representative for an American company in China. She'd been hanging out with Western journalists there, and "hearing [them] talk about their jobs, it sounded so fascinating." Koppel, 39, even met her husband of two years, Iraq expert Ken Pollack, who wrote "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq", on the job.

Top 5 things Koppel learned from Dad:

1. Care about helping the voiceless.



2. Be passionate about people. "One of my earliest memories is when my parents took me to the Taj Mahal. I was 3, and I remember taking our box lunches and giving them to poor Indian people."



3. Make time for your kids. "He always makes time, no matter what's going on."



4. Keep your commitments. "My parents are about to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary."



5. Pay attention. "It's important to really listen to the person you're interviewing, not think ahead to the next question."

In an article published by Middlebury College's Middlebury Magazine, she explains that she didn’t always want to follow her father’s footsteps into the news business.

"Years ago, people would ask me, 'Oh, I suppose you want to anchor like your dad [Nightline anchor Ted Koppel],'" she says. "I'd say, No. I thought anchoring was what you do when you're on the network news, reading introductions to reporter packages and maybe throwing one question to a reporter. It is so different on CNN. You have to snap on your seatbelt and get ready for a rough ride. There have been days when we've been live from the moment I sit in the chair until the moment I get up three hours later—wall-to-wall live coverage that involves ad-libbing, no scripts, reacting to the situation on the ground. I love the excitement."