As a New York- based reporter, her focus included politics and economics but her assignments have taken her around the world, including Russia, China, Cuba, the Middle East, Korea and South Africa. Pilgrim anchored her own CNN morning show, “Early Edition” in 1998-1999 and was anchor for prime time broadcasts at CNN from 2001-2010. She was part of the CNN team that broadcast continuously in New York during the September 11 attacks and in the weeks thereafter.

In the last decade, Pilgrim reinvented herself from an award-winning CNN journalist to an acclaimed author of fact-based fiction. Using her reporting skills and knowledge of international affairs, Pilgrim has written romantic thrillers and mysteries based on science and exploration. She uses facts, history and sensory details of locations around the world to craft a story.

Pilgrim is the recipient of many awards in journalism, including an Emmy, Peabody, and the New York Society of Black Journalists Award for field reporting on social and economic issues in South Africa. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Explorer’s Club of New York and a fellow in the Royal Geographical Society of London as well as the EastWest Institute.

She earned a B.A. in Political Science from Manhattanville College. Studying Russian at the university led her to a career in journalism. She earned an M.A. in International Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.