Catherine Osborn '08, 2025 Outstanding Alumni Winner
This year, we are proud to present the Outstanding Alumni Award to Catherine Osborn, Class of 2008, in recognition of her remarkable achievements in global journalism.
Catherine is fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese and earned her degree in Latin American Studies at Yale University. She has built a distinguished career reporting from Brazil, where she brings depth and clarity to some of the more complex issues facing Latin America.
Her reporting spans topics such as green industrial policy in Colombia, the balance between climate goals and fiscal realities in Ecuador, and the diplomacy of migration policy throughout the Americas. Her work has been featured by NPR, PRX’s The World, and Foreign Affairs, and she is also part of the writing team for a global foreign policy newsletter at the Council on Foreign Relations, reaching more than 70,000 daily readers.
In addition, Catherine has served as a nonresident fellow at the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program, where she contributes interviews and analysis on key developments across the region.
Catherine was nominated by her English teacher, Ms. Kimberly Horne, who remarked, “Catherine is one of the finest human beings I have ever met. She's incredibly accomplished and also incredibly humble. She's achieved a great deal at a young age, and one of the coolest moments I've had involving an alum was driving home one day from work and hearing her voice on NPR.”
Through her thoughtful, ethical, and deeply informed journalism, Catherine embodies the values of intellectual curiosity, global engagement, and integrity that define our alumni community. Catherine was nominated by her English teacher, Ms. Kimberly Horne, who remarked, “Catherine is one of the finest human beings I have ever met. She's incredibly accomplished and also incredibly humble. She's achieved a great deal at a young age, and one of the coolest moments I've had involving an alum was driving home one day from work and hearing her voice on NPR.”
Catherine could not join us for our St. Andrew’s Day service this year, as she was on location covering the UN Climate Conference. The holiday season brought Catherine back to Austin, and while she was in town, she visited our Upper School Journalism classes. We were finally able to present Catherine with her plaque during Chapel.
Please join us in congratulating Catherine Osborn, this year’s Outstanding Alumni Award recipient.
