Maureen Orth, ’64 Political Science

Job title: 
Special Correspondent, Vanity Fair Magazine
Bio/CV: 

Maureen Orth is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair. She began her career as one of the first woman writers at Newsweek. Her best-selling book, Vulgar Favors, was the basis of the Emmy and Golden Globe winning “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” Her profiles for Vanity Fair include Angela Merkel, Madonna, Vladimir Putin, and Karl Lagerfeld. Her investigations of the charges of pedophilia against Michael Jackson and Woody Allen went viral on the internet. In 2015, her story on the Virgin Mary, “The Most Powerful Woman in the World,” was a best-selling cover for National Geographic. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Ms. Orth founded the Marina Orth Foundation in Medellin, Colombia to facilitate the teaching of STEM areas, English, and leadership in 22 public schools. The foundation’s work has helped create champion robotics teams that compete and win internationally. In recognition of her furthering of US-Colombian relations she was honored with Colombian citizenship in 2022. In 2016, she was named the Distinguished Alumnus of the Cal Alumni Club of Washington D.C. and she received the Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award from UC Berkeley in 2021. Ms. Orth is a Builder of Berkeley.