Award-winning journalist Michel Martin will host a new daily NPR news talk program starting in Spring 2007.

The daytime program will offer fresh perspectives on life in multicultural America and the world through lively discourse, thought-provoking interviews and compelling storytelling. According to Martin, "Our goals are to resist the predictable, to cross borders and to showcase diverse new voices. We also want to create an on-air and online community to continue this kind of dialogue, which we think is vital."

Martin joined NPR in January 2006 and, while developing the program, has also served as contributor and substitute host for NPR newsmagazines and talk shows.

Martin has more than two decades' journalism experience, including broadcast network television and major U.S. newspapers. She joined ABC News in 1992 and contributed to numerous programs and specials, including the network's award-winning coverage of September 11, a documentary on the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy, a critically acclaimed AIDS special and reports for the ongoing series "America in Black and White." She was named correspondent for Nightline in 1996 and reported on such wide ranging subjects as the Congressional budget battles, the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, racial profiling and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Martin previously reported for the ABC news magazine Day One, winning an Emmy for her coverage of the international campaign to ban the use of landmines, and was a regular panelist on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She also hosted the 13-episode series Life 360, an innovative program partnership between Oregon Public Broadcasting and Nightline incorporating documentary film, performance and personal narrative; it aired on public television stations across the country. Martin continues as contributor to ABC News programs, including Nightline and the network's digital channel ABC News Now.

Before joining ABC, Martin covered state and local politics for the Washington Post and national politics and policy at the Wall Street Journal, where she was White House correspondent. She has also been a regular panelist on the PBS series Washington Week and a contributor to NOW with Bill Moyers.

Martin has been honored by numerous organizations, including the Candace Award for Communications from The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Joan Barone Award for Excellence in Washington-based National Affairs/Public Policy Broadcasting from the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association and a 2002 Silver Gavel Award, given by the American Bar Association. Along with her Emmy award, she received three additional Emmy nominations, including one with NPR's Robert Krulwich, at the time an ABC contributor, for an ABC News program examining children's racial attitudes.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Martin graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1980 and has done graduate work at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. She is married to Washington attorney William (Billy) Martin and their blended family includes two older daughters and twin toddlers.