Steven L Herman — Broadcast Journalist

Steven L Herman is the chief national correspondent for the Voice of America. From 2017 to 2021, Steve was senior White House correspondent and subsequently VOA's White House bureau chief. 

Steve’s latest book, Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist’s Story of Covering the President — and Why It Matters, is to be published in June of 2024 by Kent State University Press.

Steve spent more than a quarter of a century in Asia, including years of reporting from Tokyo and subsequently as a VOA correspondent and bureau chief in India, South Korea and Thailand. Steve also served in 2016 as VOA's senior diplomatic correspondent, based at the State Department and traveling to numerous countries with Secretary of State John Kerry. 

During the Trump administration, Steve was the designated radio reporter on dozens of Air Force One domestic and international trips, including the 45th president's final flight to Florida. He continued as VOA’s White House bureau chief during the first eight months of the Biden administration.

Steve is an adjunct associate professor at Shenandoah University and an adjunct lecturer in the journalism department at the University of Richmond. He has also been the JURIST Journalist in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a Kiplinger Fellow at Ohio University.

Steve has given presentations on such subjects as geo-politics, broadcast journalism and news literacy at numerous universities, media organizations and other institutions, including in Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. He has recently presented lectures at: Chautauqua, Claremont McKenna College, Fordham University, National Intelligence University, Ohio State University School of Communication, OLLI/George Mason University, OLLI/Johns Hopkins University, Seattle Central College, University of Mary Washington and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. 

Among the major news stories Steve has covered on scene over the decades include the Baneberry nuclear federal court trial (1979), MGM Grand Hotel fire (1980), Thai April Fool's coup (1981), Squeaky Fromme's prison escape (1987), the Kobe earthquake (1995), the Tokyo subway sarin attack (1995), handover of Hong Kong (1997), the war in Afghanistan (2007-2010), end of the Sri Lanka civil war (2009), the Fukushima nuclear disaster (2011), Typhoon Haiyan (2013), Thai coup (2014), the Erawan Shrine bombing (2015) and the Gorkha earthquake (2015). He has reported from dozens of other countries and territories, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, England, Fiji, Finland, the Gaza Strip, Guam, Israel, Kashmir, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, North Korea, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Saipan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam. 

Steve is one of the most active Washington journalists on social media with 335,000 followers across major platforms.
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Steve appears frequently on other broadcast networks and channels around the world to analyze American politics and geo-political events, including ABC (Australia), ABS-CBN News (Philippines), Arirang TV, Asharq News, BBC, Bradcast (KPFK Los Angeles), Buckmaster Show (KVOI Tucson), CBC Radio, Channels TV (Nigeria), CNN, Euronews, eNCA (South Africa), e.tv News (South Africa), Fox News, John Batchelor Show (WABC New York), KBS Radio (Korea), KNPR (Nevada Public Radio), Money FM 89.3 (Singapore), NBS (Uganda), Newzroom Afrika (South Africa), NewstalkZB (New Zealand), Radio New Zealand, RTHK Radio 3 (Hong Kong), tbs Efm (South Korea), Thai PBS World, Times Radio (UK), TRT World (Turkey) and numerous TV news channels in India, including CNBC TV18, CNN-News18, Doordarshan, India Ahead, India Today, NDTV, NewsX, Republic TV, Times Now and World Is One News. He has also reported for the CBS Evening News. 

Articles, columns and reviews by Steve have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines including the Far Eastern Economic Review, Harvard Summer Review, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Japan Quarterly, Japan Times, Number 1 Shimbun, On the Air, Popular Communications, Public Diplomacy Today, Proceedings (U.S. Naval Institute), Radio World, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Shukan Bunshun, Shukan Gendai, South China Morning Post and the Wall Street Journal.

In addition to years of reporting for AP, including as the wire service's state broadcast editor in West Virginia, Steve's career has also included stints as a media executive in Asia, launching Discovery Channel and Animal Planet in Japan. He was an executive producer of the 2004 documentary The History of America's Secret Casinos. Steve was also the field producer in Sichuan, China for the video news release for the Warner Bros. 1995 film The Amazing Panda Adventure. 

Steve is a life member of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, of which he was elected president for the 1997-98 term. He also served as president of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club and the Japan-America Club of The American University and is a former vice president of the DC chapter of AAJA. Steve was also previously on the board of governors of the Overseas Press Club of America. He currently serves on the board of governors of the American Foreign Service Association and as vice chairman of the Stafford County Telecommunications Commission.

Steve is an East West Center media alumnus, a First Cohort of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and a member of the AEJMC, Authors Guild, the National Press Club, the Public Diplomacy Council of America, SAJA, SPJ and the White House Correspondents Association.

A native of Cincinnati, Steve began his media career in Las Vegas before moving to Asia. He was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2023.

A lifelong learner who completed undergraduate or graduate level coursework at UNLV, The New School, University of Bath and the Harvard Extension School, Steve earned a B.A. at Thomas Edison State University, an M.A. in Public Diplomacy from Mountain State University and was awarded a journalist virtual fellowship by the LMU Loyola Law School. ​

Steve has been a licensed amateur (ham) radio operator since his youth (FCC call sign W7VOA). He is a life member of the QCWA and can be found on the shortwave bands chasing ‘DX.’