Sharyn Alfonsi has contributed reports to 60 Minutes since 2015. The 2018-19 season is her fifth with the broadcast.
Alfonsi's investigation of the misuse of jailhouse informants in Orange County, California, drew national attention to a criminal justice system scandal. Another 2017 story on the success of a rural Mississippi school's chess team flipped a common stereotype. In her first 60 Minutes report, she revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was aware its insurance companies had committed fraud against Hurricane Sandy victims. Alfonsi also reported on climate change, cybersecurity, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among combat veterans.
Her work for the sports edition of 60 Minutes includes stories on injuries caused to teens who play only one sport year-round and sudden deaths among young athletes with undetected heart problems. She has done several sports profiles, including golfer Bubba Watson and the poignant portrait of Harry Parker, who coached the Harvard varsity crew team to a final victory before dying as one of the most successful collegiate coaches in history.
Alfonsi came from ABC News, where she was a New York-based reporter for five years who appeared regularly on all of the division's platforms. For "World News Tonight," she revealed that uniforms to be worn by U.S. Olympic athletes were made in China. Reporting for "Nightline," she showed the often cruel world of the puppy mill industry, exposing factory-like breeding facilities in the Amish country of Pennsylvania.
Before her time at ABC, Alfonsi had been a CBS News correspondent based in New York since July 2004 and was the lead correspondent on many domestic and international stories. Alfonsi covered the school shootings at Virginia Tech and reported for all CBS News broadcasts. In 2006, she reported from the Israel-Lebanon border covering the war with Hezbollah and later, the violence in Gaza. Alfonsi also covered the war in Iraq. Upon her return from Baghdad, she covered Hurricane Katrina and stayed in New Orleans for more than a month reporting on the recovery and rebuilding efforts. Other major national stories Alfonsi has covered include Hurricane Rita and the Sago Mine Disaster in West Virginia. She has served as a fill-in anchor for the "CBS Evening News" weekend edition and regularly contributed to "CBS Sunday Morning."
Before being promoted to CBS News correspondent, Alfonsi was a freelance correspondent for the "CBS Evening News" weekend edition, "Up To The Minute," and CBS Newspath. Among the stories she covered there were the Martha Stewart trial and the return of U.S. soldiers from Iraq.
Alfonsi was an award-winning reporter and substitute anchor for WBZ-TV, the CBS-owned station in Boston, where she covered the ongoing Catholic Church scandal, the Michael Skakel trial, and the Rhode Island nightclub fire, among other stories.
Before that, she was a reporter for KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle, Washington, where she covered the World Trade Organization riots. Alfonsi was also a general assignment reporter for WVEC–TV Norfolk, Virginia, where she traveled extensively with the military. She began her career in broadcast journalism at KHBS-TV in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, where she served as a news reporter, weekend weather anchor, photographer, and editor.
Alfonsi grew up near Washington, D.C. She graduated from the University of Mississippi, Oxford, in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science and journalism studies. She lives in Austin, Texas.
