Ali Gostanian
Master's candidate focusing on international policy + the Middle East @ Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
Former award-winning senior journalist + newsroom leader @ NBC News
About Me
Ali Gostanian is a master's candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she is studying international relations, public policy and politics with functional focus areas of Governance, Politics, and Society and Security, Strategy, and Statecraft and regional focus area in the Middle East and the United States.
Prior to pursuing her graduate studies, Ali was an award-winning senior reporter, producer and editor with NBC News' Social Newsgathering team, specializing in open source investigations and social media verification. She served as the weekend manager for social newsgathering operations, leading reporters, associate reporters, researchers and interns during breaking news coverage and in enterprise reporting. In this leadership role, she was also the main point of contact between the weekend platforms and the Social Newsgathering team. Her work has been featured on various NBC News platforms, including NBCNews.com, Today.com, The Today Show, Nightly News with Lester Holt, MSNBC, NBC News Now and others.
Before joining SNG, Ali was an editor on the National Assignment Desk helping drive the network’s coverage of all domestic news stories. She began her career at NBCUniversal as an intern with CNBC’s Marketing and On-Air Promotions team and Closing Bell Production team and with NBC News’ New York Bureau.
Ali is the winner of five RTDNA National Murrow Awards, a News Emmy Award, a New York Press Club Award and the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Professional Journalism. She was also nominated for nine Emmy Awards during her time at NBC News.
Ali is a 2023 graduate of the Asian American Journalists Association's Executive Leadership Program (ELP), a competitive and rigorous leadership and development program dedicated to shaping the next generation of leaders in the field of journalism. She was also accepted into the September 2024 cohort of Poynter's Leadership Academy for Women in Media.
Ali studied Communications and Media Studies, Journalism and Business Administration at Fordham University in New York where she graduated cum laude in 2015. She is proficient in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Ali splits her time between New York and Washington, DC with her husband and dog. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, traveling and photography.
Awards
2022 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Breaking News Coverage: January 6th Attack on the Capitol
2022 RTDNA National Murrow Award for Overall Excellence: NBC News
2022 RTDNA National Murrow Award for Breaking News Coverage: Siege of the Capitol
2022 RTDNA National Murrow Award for Newscast: Nightly News with Lester Holt (August 26, 2021)
2021 RTDNA National Murrow Award for Newscast: TODAY/NBC News
2020 RTDNA National Murrow Award for Breaking News Coverage: Deadly Mass Shootings
2020 New York Press Club Award for Feature - Science Medicine & Technology: Climate in Crisis Coverage
2020 Society of Professional Journalists Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Professional Journalism: Notre Dame fire
Nominations
2024 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Live Breaking News Coverage: Attack on Israel - October 7
2024 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Live News Program: Nightly News with Lester Holt
2023 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Live Breaking News Coverage: Uvalde School Shooting
2023 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Live News Program: Nightly News with Lester Holt
2019 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage: Parkland School Shooting
2019 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Coverage of Breaking News in a Newscast: NBC Nightly News - State of Emergency: Hurricane Florence
2017 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage: Terror in Brussels
2017 NATAS News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Newscast: NBC Nightly News - Brussels Under Attack