CNN newswoman Soledad O'Brien

Soledad O'Brien has been with the news channel CNN since 2001.  

She was born to an Australian father of Irish decent and an Afro-Cuban mother.  She's been named one of the top one hundred Irish-Americans twice by Irish America magazine, she belongs to the National Association of Black Journalists and to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and she was named "Groundbreaking Latina of the Year" in 2005 by Catalina magazine.  

She's a one-woman Rainbow Coalition. :-) 

Soledad O'Brien got her start at NBC, working for the news departments of its affiliates in Boston and San Francisco.  On the national network, she was a reporter for Today and the weekend edition of NBC's nightly newscast, as well as a co-anchor for Weekend Today."  At CNN, she co-hosted "American Morning" with Miles O'Brien (no relation) from 2003 to 2007 and made several documentaries before becoming the anchor of the morning show "Starting Point," the successor to "American Morning," in January 2012.

She's also known for her hard-hitting interview strategy, forcing public figures to defend indefensible positions and to tell the truth.  Why didn't she moderate the first Obama-Romney debate? 

Fun fact: Her full name is María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien, and she's explained that her full name is Spanish for "The Blessed Virgin Mary Of Solitude."