Exclusive Portraits: Katie Couric at 58th Chicago Intl. Film Festival

CHICAGO – Media journalist Kate Couric came to the 58th Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) as an Executive Producer for the film “No Ordinary Campaign,” the story of Brian Wallach and wife Sandra Abrevaya, who decided to use their political acumen to create change when Brian was diagnosed with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

The film informs that Brian was given just six months to live, which inspired the couple’s expertise – they met on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign – to create legislation to help other ALS patients to gain access to new experimental drugs and disability benefits. Brian decided also to become a face of the disease, recruiting other patients to become a founder of “I Am ALS.” In the story of Brian and Sandra’s efforts to cut through the red tape of Washington, D.C., the highest level of inspiration, passion and success is the result.

Katie Couric, Executive Producer for ‘No Ordinary Campaign’
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

"No Ordinary Campaign" Executive Producer Katie Couric is an advocate for this film and many other causes through her stellar career as journalist, anchor, author and producer. She was born in Arlington, Virginia, and was an American Studies major at the University of Virginia. She began her career at the ABC News Bureau in Washington, D.C. in 1979, and worked her way up as an on-air reporter for the NBC affiliate in D.C. She moved up to national correspondent for the network, becoming co-anchor of The Today Show in 1991, and remained as host and in various NBC news shows and events through 2006.

In that same year, Katie Couric was hired by CBS to fill the anchor and managing editor position on their evening news, and won multiple awards while being the first woman solo anchor in network news history. She left the position in 2011. During her tenure, she also reported on “60 Minutes” and made news herself when she interviewed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008 … famously satirized on “Saturday Night Live.”

She scored a network trifecta when she worked for ABC in various capacities through 2013, had a syndicated talk show through 2014 and was the face of Yahoo! News at the same time through 2017. Since then she has expanded her own media production company (KatieCouric.com), and continued her advocacy in health matters, having lost her husband Jay Monahan to colon cancer in 1998 and in her own diagnosis of breast cancer in 2022.

Katie Couric of KatieCouric.com Media
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com took the Exclusive Portraits of Katie Couric on the Red Carpet at the 58th CIFF on October 21st, 2022.

Patrick McDonald interviews Katie Couric on October 21st 2022, at the 58th CIFF Red Carpet on behalf of “No Ordinary Campaign” …

[19]	By PATRICK McDONALD [20] Editor & Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com [19]