People
Meet Jo Ling Kent, NBC News Business Technology Correspondent
Jo Ling Kent is a pioneer in journalism and is best known for her work as a journalist and news correspondent at NBC. She’s had a career as a journalist for a decade and doesn’t look like she’ll be retiring from editing any time soon. Luckily, the news game has become very interesting, especially in America as journalists are respected for their invaluable contributions in controlling those in power and various institutions in a country.
Learn about the life of a woman who carved a niche for herself in American journalism.
Jo Ling Kent’s bio
On May 11, 1984, a very happy Shean YenJanice and David L. Kent welcomed their baby girl, Jo Ling Kent, into the world. They gave birth to a bundle of joy in San Francisco, but she would spend most of her childhood in the city of Minnetonka, Minnesota. Jo Ling Kent’s father, David, is an American male while her mother is Chinese. Because of this, she is of mixed heritage with part American and part Asian ancestry. While in high school, Jo competed in figure skating and was part of student government.
For her university education, Jo Lingdie attended William Marsh Rice University, colloquially referred to as Rice University. She spent four years there, graduating in 2006 – a Bachelor of Arts in History, Asia and Political Science. This was not her last station in her educational quest. In 2008, after studying for two years, she graduated from Peking University – a research university in Beijing, China. The following year, Jo earned her master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Jo Ling Kent is multilingual. She is fluent in English and Mandarin. The other language she speaks is French, although she is not as fluent as the other two languages she speaks. This natural affinity for languages can be seen as indicative of her later professional career, as mastery of other languages proved to be an invaluable asset in her journalistic career – particularly at international level.
Personal life
Jo Ling Kent is currently married to Scott Conroy who is also a journalist. The couple started dating on August 22, 2015 after a while. The wedding ceremony took place in New Hampshire at a resort in Whitefield. You don’t have any children yet. Unlike his wife, who works in television, Conroy is a senior political reporter at the Huffington Post.
Career as NBC News Business & Technology Correspondent
Jo Ling Kent has stated that as a child she had a desire to pursue different careers in different fields, but as she got older she found herself on a certain line that eventually led to a career in journalism. A number of people who admire her and the way she tells her stories must be immensely grateful for the direction her life has taken.
Before becoming a journalist, Kent spent a significant period in China as a researcher on a Fulbright grant. She conducted most of her research on the impact of legal aid on the lives of disadvantaged women who are victims of domestic violence. During her time in China, she began her career as a journalist.
She began her foray into journalism as a WebReporter working with ABC News. While working in China, she mainly covered the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. That same year, Taiwan went to the polls and she covered the entire process for the station. She also reported on the earthquake that struck Sichuan and the riots that took place in Tibet that same year. Needless to say, 2008 was a great year for Ling to make her debut as a journalist.
Since childhood in ChinaEvents, she has worked with NBC as an associate producer and as a reporter. In 2013, she quit her job at NBC and joined Fox News, where she worked as a business correspondent. Her work at Fox News lasted three years and by 2016 she had returned to NBC where she currently works as a correspondent.
During her early years at NBC as a reporter, she covered one of the most tragic events in recent American history – the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. They were awarded a Peabody for the work she did along with her team, and rightly so it was quite a painful moment in American history that they covered with the utmost care and attention.
